THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION 
IN    RHODE    ISLAND 


BY 


CHARLES  CARROLL,  LL.  B.,  Ph.D. 

INSTRUCTOR  IN  RHODE  ISLAND  EDUCATION 
RHODE  ISLAND  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


PROVIDENCE,    R.    I. 

E.    L.    FREEMAN   COMPANY,     PRINTERS 
1918 


COPYRIGHT,  1918 
CHARLES   CARROLL 


Rhode    Island    Education    Circulars 

PUBLIC   EDUCATION 
IN    RHODE    ISLAND 

By    CHARLES    CARROLL 


PUBLISHED  JOINTLY  BY  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION, 

THE  COMMISSIONER  OF  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND 
THE   TRUSTEES   OF  THE  RHODE  ISLAND  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 

His  EXCELLENCY  R.  LIVINGSTON  BEECKMAN 

His  HONOR  EMERY  J.  SAN  Souci 

HON.  GEORGE  T.  BAKER  HON.  FRANK  HILL 

HON.  JOSEPH  R.  BOURGEOIS  HON.  FREDERICK  RUECKERT 

HON.  E.  CHARLES  FRANCIS  HON.  FRANK  E.  THOMPSON 


COMMISSIONER   OF  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS 
HON.  WALTER  E.  RANGER,  A.  M.,  LL.  D. 


TRUSTEES  OF  RHODE   ISLAND   NORMAL   SCHOOL 

CONSISTING  OF 
THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 

AND   THE 

COMMISSIONER  OF  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 


1024939 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION 
IN    RHODE    ISLAND 


TEIS  STUDY  OF  THE  EVOLUTION  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  SOCIAL  CON- 
SCIOUSNESS OF  PUBLIC  RESPONSIBILITY  FOR  EDUCATION  IN  A 
REPUBLIC  IN  WHICH  INDIVIDUALISM  WAS  THE  GUIDING 
PRINCIPLE  OF  THOSE  WHO  FOUNDED  IT  AND 
THOSE  WHO  SOUGHT  ITS  HOSPITALITY 


IS   DEDICATED   TO 

/ 

THE    STATE    OF    RHODE   ISLAND 
AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  need  of  a  new  history  of  education  in  Rhode  Island  is 
apparent  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  latest  historical  account  of 
the  State's  educational  enterprise  was  published  forty-two  years 
ago.  The  development  of  the  principle  of  universal  education 
and  the  growth  of  the  public  school  system  during  these  years 
have  been  notable  in  Rhode  Island,  and  the  fruitful  educational 
experience  and  civic  progress  of  this  period  make  the  prepa- 
ration of  this  history  an  important  public  service. 

A  knowledge  of  Rhode  Island  public  education,  including  its 
history,  law  and  administration,  is  valuable'' to  every  citizen 
as  civic  information,  but  it  is  indispensable  to  every  teacher 
and  superintendent  as  professional  intelligence  and  inspiration. 
Four  years  ago,  Dr.  Carroll  gave  us  his  work  on  school 
law  and  administration  in  Rhode  Island,  and  now  we  are  in- 
debted to  him  for  his  generous  service  in  the  painstaking  and 
laborious  preparation  of  the  history  of  education  in  Rhode 
Island.  These  two  books  complete  an  invaluable  exposition  of 
Rhode  Island  Education,  in  which  are  revealed  the  meaning  of 
public  education  and  the  true  function  of  our  public  school 
organization. 

In  his  thorough  study  of  school  education  before  1876,  for  the 
period  for  which  others  wrote,  Dr.  Carroll  collected  new  material 
evidently  not  considered  by  them,  and  discovered  discrediting 
misconceptions  and  misstatements,  which  unfortunately  have 
been  carelessly  accepted  and  reproduced  by  later  writers.  A 
study  of  the  new  material  and  other  historical  evidence  has  led 


4  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

him  to  a  radically  different  interpretation  of  material  and  to 
widely  different  conclusions  regarding  early  educational  con- 
ditions in  Rhode  Island.  The  book  is  an  attempt  to  do  real 
justice  to  Rhode  Island's  progress  in  education. 

While  the  book  is  a  new  and  authentic  history  of  early  educa- 
tion in  Rhode  Island,  it  is  the  only  comprehensive  and  critical 
account  of  the  State  educational  experience  and  progress  for 
the  past  forty-two  years.  In  that  period  the  number  of  children 
in  public  schools  has  risen  from  39,000  to  90,000,  and  annual 
expenditures  for  public  education  have  increased  from  $709,000 
to  $4,136,000.  The  growth  of  the  Rhode  Island  public  school 
system  has  been  attended  by  an  increase  in  public  responsibility, 
an  extension  of  public  education  to  larger  numbers  and  in  sub- 
jects taught,  progressive  legislation,  and  improvement  in  school 
instruction  and  administration.  Dr.  Carroll  has  given  us  a 
comprehensive  survey  of  this  period  of  accumulative  educa- 
tional gains,  in  which  appear  such  significant  marks  of  advance 
as  free  textbooks  and  supplies,  mandatory  maintenance  for 
free  public  schools,  compulsory  attendance,  state  certification 
of  teachers,  abolition  of  school  districts,  extension  of  supervision, 
required  provision  for  high  school  education,  development  of 
opportunities  at  public  expense  for  higher  education  extending 
the  public  school  system  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  college, 
extension  of  the  public  school  system  by  provision  of  institutions 
or  opportunities  for  education  for  those  not  equipped  with 
normal  sensory  capacity,  establishment  and  maintenance  of 
uniform  high  standards  for  all  schools ;  improvement  of  teaching 
and  the  economic  and  professional  status  of  teachers,  including 
the  development  of  the  greater  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  and 
other  opportunities  for  the  training  of  teachers,  the  minimum 
teacher's  salary  and  the  teacher's  pension;  provisions  for  the 
safety  and  health  of  children,  including  medical  and  dental 
inspection,  compulsory  physical  training,  examination  of  chil- 
dren for  employment,  and  the  establishment  of  sanitary  stand- 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

ards  for  school  construction;  and  an  unprecedented  development 
of  the  service  of  free  public  libraries,  since  1875  a  special  care  of 
the  State  Board  of  Education. 

Another  valuable  feature  of  the  work  is  that  it  is  written 
with  a  true  conception  of  public  education  as  a  civic  interest  and 
public  enterprise  directed  by  the  people's  government  to  insure 
the  proper  instruction  and  training  of  all  the  public's  children 
for  a  common  citizenship.  The  public  school  system  is  rec- 
ognized as  an  organization  of  free  government,  and  public 
education  as  for  public  protection  and  welfare.  Thus  in- 
terpreted, Rhode  Island  education,  in  its  origin,  development, 
organization  and  administration,  has  a  character  peculiar  to 
itself,  and  also  appears  as  a  genuine  and  true  type  of  America  n 
public  education. 

Grateful  appreciation  is  due  Dr.  Carroll,  not  only  for  his 
service  as  author  of  a  valuable  work,  but  also  for  his  generosity 
in  prefering  a  free  distribution  of  it  to  personal  gain.  His  book 
is  published  for  the  sake  of  those  engaged  in  the  public  service 
of  education,  with  the  confident  hope  that  it  will  help  us  to 
know  better  the  meaning  of  public  education,  to  see  more  clearly 
the  ideals  of  Rhode  Island  education,  to  find  in  its  account  of 
past  educational  experience  the  basis. and  incentive  for  continued 
progress,  and  to  recognize  the  increasing  civic  obligations  of  the 
school. 

WALTER  E.  RANGER, 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 


PREFACE. 


The  splendid  progress  that  public  education  has  achieved  in 
Rhode  Island  in  the  past  forty  years  would  warrant  publication 
of  at  least  a  volume  supplementary  to  Commissioner  Stockwell's 
"History  of  Public  Education  in  Rhode  Island."  The  writer 
has  had  access  to  sources  of  information  and  to  records  which 
either  were  not  available  or  were  overlooked  in  1876,  and  these 
have  led  him  to  reach  conclusions  that  contradict  the  interpre- 
tation of  Rhode  Island  educational  history  presented  in  earlier 
books. 

The  writer's  thanks  are  due  to  the  State  Board  of  Education 
and  to  the  Trustees  of  Rhode  Island  Normal  School,  who  have 
made  the  publication  of  this  book  possible  ;  and  more  particu- 
larly to  Honorable  Walter  E.  Ranger,  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  for  a  kindly  interest  and  a  lively  encouragement. 
Intimate  association  with  Commissioner  Ranger  in  the  past 
three  years  has  given  the  writer  a  liberal  education  in  democ- 
racy as  well  as  in  public  education. 

CHARLES  CARROLL. 
RHODE  ISLAND  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  1918. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
I.     RHODE  ISLAND  COLONIAL  SCHOOLS,  1640-1776 11 

Settlements,  11;  Charter,  12;  Alleged  Backwardness  in 
Education,  13;  Its  Refutation,  15;  Early  Town  Records, 
15;  Rhode  Island  Theory  of  Education,  33;  An  Evalua- 
tion, 34. 

II.     THE  BEGINNINGS  OP  A  STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM,  1776-1828. ...     37 

Evolution  of  Responsibility,  38;  Town  and  Other  Records,  41; 
John  Rowland  and  Free  Schools,  58;  Two  Surveys,  1819, 
1828,  73;  State  and  Education,  77;  Petition  for  Free 
Schools,  77;  Act  of  1800,  80;  Movements  That  Failed  to 
Function,  82. 

III.  ORGANIZATION  OF  A  STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM,  1828-1844 84 

Press  and  People,  84;  Fight  for  Public  Schools,  87;  Act  of 
1828,  91;  Effects  of  Act  of  1828,  94;  Reorganization  in 
Providence,  96;  Record  of  Statewide  Improvement,  102; 
More  School  Legislation,  106;  Critical  Years,  107;  More 
Money  and  Improvement,  115;  Act  of  1839,  118;  State 
School  Committee,  120;  Wilkins  Updike,  125;  Summary, 
128. 

IV.  SURVEY  AND  REORGANIZATION,  1844-1893 129 

Barnard  Survey,  130;  Barnard  Act,  136;  Aftermath  of  Survey, 
141;  Major  Problems — Adequate  Support,  143;  Tuition, 
147;  Textbooks,  149;  Attendance,  153;  Training  Teach- 
ers, 162;  Administration,  166;  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  170;  Summary,  175. 

V.     PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS,  1845-1893 177 

Ten  Years  of  Progress,  178;  Years  of  Quiet  Development,  180; 
Opportunity  Neglected,  186;  Agricultural  School,  188; 
A  Vigorous  Commissioner,  189;  Rhode  Island  Normal 
School,  190;  State  Board  of  Education,  194;  General 
Assembly  and  Education,  196;  Compulsory  Attendance, 
198;  Other  Advances,  209;  Free  Textbooks,  215;  Sum- 
mary, 216. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS.  9 

PAGE 
VI.    EXTENSION  AND  IMPROVEMENT,  1893-1918 219 

Schools  for  Defectives,  219;  Higher  Education — Rhode  Island 
State  College,  224;  Rhode  Island  Normal  School,  228; 
High  Schools,  235;  Improvement  of  Public  School 
System — Compulsory  Attendance,  239;  Uniform  Stand- 
ards, 243;  Improvement  of  Teaching,  247;  Extension  of 
Supervision,  251;  Abolition  of  Districts,  253;  Safety  and 
Health  of  School  Children,  256;  Other  Improvements, 
258;  Progress  of  Improvement,  263;  Ranger  Platform, 
265;  Chronology  of  Improvement,  269. 

VII.     PUBLIC  SCHOOL  FINANCE 272 

Tax  Exemption,  273;  Auction  Dues  and  Lotteries,  279;  De- 
posit Fund,  286;  Supplementary  Revenue,  291;  Appor- 
tionment of  Public  School  Money,  298;  Change  in  Policy, 
311;  Public  Support  of  Schools,  320;  State's  Contribu- 
tion to  Education,  325;  Philosophy  of  School  Finance, 
330. 

VIII.     THE  PERMANENT  SCHOOL  FUND 333 

First  Report,  336;  A  New  Policy,  345;  A  New  Law  and  a 
Change  of  Policy,  353;  An  Investigation  off  the  Record, 
359;  State's  Unacknowledged  Debt,  365;  Errors  That 
Favored  the  Fund,  367;  Foundation  of  Present  Law,  369; 
Great  Increase  in  1859,  370;  Monotonous  Increase  Re- 
lieved, 373;  Process  of  Reinvestment,  376;  General 
Summary,  381 ;  How  the  School  Fund  May  be  Vitalized, 
384. 

IX.     SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 387 

Contentious  Experience  of  Providence,  389;  Intricacies  of  the 
District  System,  402;  Town  School  Committee,  420; 
State  Department  of  Education,  432;  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools,  441;  The  State  Schools,  449;  Problems 
of  School  Administration,  451. 

X.    THE  SCHOOL  TEACHER •  461 

Qualifications  of  the  Teacher,  462;  Preparation  for  Teaching, 
470;  Teacher's  "Contract,"  479;  State  and  Teacher, 
484;  Ethics  of  the  Profession,  486;  Teacher's  Pledge  of 
Loyalty,  489. 

Bibliography 491 

Index. .  .  495 


CHAPTER  I. 


RHODE  ISLAND  COLONIAL  SCHOOLS. 


The  first  permanent  white  settlement  within  the  borders  of 
what  is  now  the  state  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions was  made  in  June,  1636,  by  Roger  Williams  and  five 
companions.  Williams  had  left  Massachusetts  to  avoid  the 
consequences  of  interference  by  the  rulers  of  that  Puritan 
theocracy  with  his  liberty  of  conscience.  Land  was  bought 
from  the  Indians,  and  a  compact,  signed  later  in  1636  by  Roger 
Williams  and  twelve  settlers,  established  Providence  Plantations. 

The  following  year  a  second  band  of  exiles  from  Massachusetts 
settled  at  the  northerly  end  of  Aquidneck,  since  called  Rhode 
Island.  They  were  joined  in  1638  by  Anne  Hutchinson,  who 
had  been  their  leader  in  Massachusetts.  The  island  was  pur- 
chased from  the  Indians  and  the  town  subsequently  named 
Portsmouth  was  thus  established. 

In  1639  religious  dissension  in  Portsmouth  prompted  a  party 
of  the  inhabitants  to  seek  the  southern  end  of  the  island  and 
start  a  plantation  at  Newport.  One  year  later  Portsmouth  and 
Newport  joined  in  forming  a  government,  with  William  Cod- 
dington  as  the  first  Governor.  The  towns  were  still  distinct. 

Samuel  Gorton,  in  October,  1642,  purchased  land  from  the 
Indians,  and  in  November  settled  with  others  at  Shawomet, 
later  called  Warwick. 

The  four  settlements  drew  to  them  a  large  contingent  of  dis- 
senters and  adventurers.  A  union  under  a  charter  procured  by 
Roger  Williams  in  1643  for  the  "Incorporation  of  Providence 


12  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

/ 

Plantations  in  the  Narragansett  Bay  in  New  England,"  was 
short-lived,  a  feud  between  Portsmouth  and  Newport  on  one 

side  and  Providence  and  Warwick  on  the  other  breaking  out. 

n 

Not  until  1654  were  the  differences  dissipated  through  the 
diplomacy  of  Roger  Williams,  who  was  in  that  year  elected 
President  of  the  reunited  confederacy. 

THE  CHARTER. 

King  Charles  II.  of  England  granted  Rhode  Island  a  colonial 
charter  July  8,  1663,  under  which  a  permanent  government  was 
organized.  The  charter  recited  that  the  King  had  been  in- 
formed that  the  settlers,  "pursuing  with  peaceable  and  loyal 
minds  their  sober,  serious  and  religious  intentions  of  godly 
edifying  themselves  and  one  another  in  the  holy  Christian  faith 
and  worship,  as  they  were  persuaded,  together  with  the  gaining 
over  and  conversion  of  the  poor,  ignorant  Indian  natives  in  those 
parts  of  America  to  the  sincere  profession  and  obedience  of  the 
same  faith  and  worship,"  had  left  their  homes  in  England;  and 
that  since  their  arrival  in  America,  "for  the  avoiding  of  discord 
and  those  evils  which  were  likely  to  ensue  upon  some  of  those 
our  subjects  not  being  able  to  bear,  in  those  remote  parts,  their 
different  apprehensions  in  religious  discernments,"  had  once 
again  left  "their  desirable  stations  and  habitations"  and  trans- 
planted themselves  "into  the  midst  of  the  Indian  natives  ;  " 
and  that  "they  have  freely  declared  that  it  is  much  in  their 
hearts  (if  they  may  be  permitted) 

TO  HOLD  FORTH  A  LIVELY  EXPERIMENT  THAT  A 

MOST  FLOURISHING  CIVIL  STATE  MAY  STAND 

AND  BEST  BE  MAINTAINED  WITH  A  FULL 

LIBERTY  IN  RELIGIOUS  CONCERNMENTS* 

and  that  the  King  granted,  ordained  and  declared  that  "  no  per- 
son within  said  colony,  at  any  time  hereafter,  shall  be  any  wise 

*Inscription  on  State  House. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  13 

molested,  punished,  disquieted  or  called  in  question  for  any 
difference  in  opinion  in  matters  of  religion." 

The  charter  incorporated  the  "Governor  and  Company  of 
the  English  Colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions in  New  England  in  America,"  and  set  forth  a  plan  for  the 
organization  of  a  government.  The  colony  was  described  as 
including  "all  that  part  of  our  dominions  in  New  England,  in 
America,  containing  the  Nahantic  and  Nanhygansett,  alias 
Narragansett  bay,  and  countries  and  parts  adjacent."  The 
boundaries  named  included  approximately  the  present  area  of 
the  state,  with  the  addition  of  Fall  River  and  with  the  exception 
of  East  Providence  and  a  part  of  Pawtucket.  But  if  the  rival 
claims  of  Plymouth  on  the  east  and  Connecticut  on  the  west 
had  prevailed,  Rhode  Island  would  consist  of  only  a  line  drawn 
through  the  channel  of  Narragansett  bay  and  the  Providence 
and  Seekonk  rivers.  As  it  was,  Rhode  Island  authority  was 
established  east  of  Narragansett  bay  and  the  Providence, 
Seekonk  and  Blackstone  rivers  only  in  1747,  when  a  royal 
decree  confirmed  Rhode  Island's  claim  to  Cumberland,  Bristol, 
Warren,  Tiverton  and  Little  Compton.  The  border  dispute 
with  Connecticut  was  also  of  long  standing. 

Besides  the  conflict  with  neighboring  colonies  arising  from 
boundary  disputes,  besides  the  disastrous  effects  of  Indian  wars 
in  which  Rhode  Island,  though  having  no  quarrel  with  the 
natives,  was  a  battlefield  and  a  sufferer  from  Indian  depreda- 
tions, there  was  turmoil  and  jealousy  and  dissension  within 
the  colony  sufficient  to  entitle  Rhode  Island  to  well-earned 
credit  for  having  fulfilled  the  mission  imposed  upon  the  colony 
by  the  charter — "to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a  most 
flourishing  civil  state  may  stand." 

ALLEGED  BACKWARDNESS  IN  EDUCATION. 

To  religious  dissension,  to  the  absence  of  an  established 
church,  to  Baptist  and  Quaker  distrust  of  schools  as  institu- 


14  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

tions  closely  allied  with  established  churches  and  foes  of  liberty 
of  conscience,  to  disgust  for  schools  because  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  maintained  schools,  to  hatred  of  institutions  cher- 
ished in  the  theocracies  from  which  many  of  the  Rhode  Island 
settlers  had  withdrawn,  to  separatism  and  extreme  individual- 
ism, to  anti-social  characteristics,  to  negro  slavery,  to  civil  strife 
within  and  conflict  with  neighboring  colonies,  to  Indian  wars,  to 
sparse  and  scattered  settlements — to  all  of  these  and  some  other 
causes  has  been  laid  an  alleged  backwardness  in  providing  schools 
in  Rhode  Island.  In  this  opinion  most  writers  have  followed  the 
dicta  of  Judge  Staples  and  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  Elisha 
R.  Potter,  who  have  given  the  prevailing  tone  to  the  works  of 
Stone,  Higginson,  Stockwell,  Foster,  Kimball  and  Field.  Henry 
C.  Dorr  and  Richman,  with  more  reason,  emphasize  the  obstacle 
to  educational  and  other  progress  arising  from  the  selfish  interest 
of  the  proprietors  of  Providence,  who  formed  a  party  within  the 
freemen  sufficiently  large  and  influential  to  dominate  the 
latter.  Small  belittled  Rhode  Island's  interest  in  education 
on  the  first  page  of  his  "Early  New  England  Schools,"  and  in 
subsequent  chapters  unconsciously  demonstrated  the  patent 
error  in  his  statement.  Arnold  and  Rider  stand  almost  alone 
in  contradicting  the  prevailing  heresy. 

It  is  positively  certain  that  schools  were  the  least  oppressive 
institutions  in  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  from  which  the 
early  settlers  of  Rhode  Island  departed.  The  Massachusetts 
law  entrusting  to  selectmen  the  duty  of  seeing  that  children 
were  taught  to  read  and  understand  the  principles  of  religion 
and  the  capital  laws  was  not  enacted  until  1642,  and  the  School 
Ordinance  of  1647  followed  the  departure  of  Roger  Williams 
by  a  dozen  years.  The  Plymouth  Colony  made  no  provision 
for  schools  until  1663.  Newport  was  probably  the  first  town 
in  all  English  America  to  establish  a  public  school.  The  rival 
claims  of  Massachusetts  towns  are  for  school  support  rather  than 
the  actual  establishment  of  public  schools. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  15 

ITS  REFUTATION. 

A  complete  refutation  of  the  fallacy  that  early  settlers  in 
Rhode  Island  were  hostile  to  schools  is  found  in  the  records  of 
the  four  original  towns  united  into  a  civil  state  by  the  charter. 
This  is  the  record: 

Newport,  settled  in  1639,  called  Robert  Lenthal  one  year 
later,  in  August,  1640,  to  conduct  a  school,  and  at  the  same 
time  granted  to  him  four  acres  of  land  for  a  houselot,  100  acres 
for  the  school,  and  the  income  of  another  100  acres  "for  a  school 
for  the  encouragement  of  the  poorer  sort  to  train  up  their 
youth  in  learning." 

Warwick,  as  early  as  1652,  that  is  ten  years  after  the  settle- 
ment, had  a  building  used  as  a  schoolhouse  and  as  a  hall  for 
meetings. 

Providence,  in  1663,  set  aside  106  acres  of  land  for  a  school. 

For  Portsmouth,  the  fourth  town,  there  is  no  record  earlier 
than  July  30,  1716,  when  it  was  ordered  that  a  "new  school- 
house"  be  built  upon  one  acre  of  land  belonging  to  the  town 
situated  in  the  north  part  of  the  town.  A  fair  implication 
from  the  words  "new  schoolhouse"  is  that  there  was  or  had 
been  a  schoolhouse  in  Portsmouth  earlier  than  1716,  but  there 
is  no  positive  proof,  and  beyond  the  implication  from  the 
record,  no  indication  of  the  time  when  Portsmouth  built  its 
first  schoolhouse  or  kept  a  school. 

EARLY  RECORDS  INCOMPLETE  AND  FRAGMEN- 
TARY. 

It  is  not  possible  to  construct  from  the  early  records  of  Rhode 
Island  towns  which  have  been  preserved  a  complete  and  con- 
sistent history  of  schools.  The  difficulty  arises  partly  from 
incomplete  and  fragmentary  records,  partly  from  broken  series, 
partly  from  destruction  or  loss  of  records,  partly  from  the 
practice  of  entrusting  duties  to  committees  whose  reports  were 


16  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

by  word  of  mouth  or  if  in  writing  have  not  been  preserved,  and 
partly  from  the  fact  that  education  was  'not  in  most  Rhode 
Island  towns  a  municipal  undertaking.  Indeed,  it  is  probable 
that,  in  some  instances  at  an  early  date,  the  incorporation  of 
towns  served  public  expediency  or  political  convenience  rather 
than  community  interest  and  a  municipal  need.  There  were 
in  1708  three  towns  with  less  than  50  families — East  Greenwich 
including  West  Greenwich,  with  240  inhabitants;  Jamestown, 
with  206,  and  New  Shoreham,  with  208 — which,  if  in  Massachu- 
setts, would  not  be,  under  the  Ordinance  of  1647,  obliged  to 
maintain  schools. 

Of  dame  schools,  of  more  pretentious  schools  kept  in  private 
houses  or  commodious  barns,  of  home  schools  maintained  for 
their  children  by  the  wealthy  planters  of  the  Narragansett 
country,  of  the  schoolmaster  who  taught  John  Brown  to  cypher 
in  Providence  between  1749  and  1752,  of  village  schools  sup- 
ported by  public  subscription  and  by  tuition  charges,  of  school- 
houses  erected  by  subscription  of  proprietors  on  land  leased  or 
let  at  will,  perhaps  put  up  by  the  common,  joint  labor  of  the 
proprietors,  there  are  no  public  records.  Only  when  a  town 
set  aside  land  for  school  purposes,  or  built  or  repaired  a  school- 
house,  or  leased  a  town  schoolhouse,  or  engaged  a  teacher,  or 
let  the  town  schoolhouse  to  a  teacher,  or  supplemented  the 
teacher's  earnings  by  a  salary  grant,  was  the  matter  recorded, 
and  the  phraseology  of  some  entries  indicates  that  other  items 
of  school  business  had  been  omitted.  Following  is  a  record  from 
1663  to  the  Revolutionary  War,  as  it  has  been  discovered: 

EARLY  TOWN  RECORDS. 

Providence—  Population,  1446  in  1708,  3916  in  1730,  3452  in 
1748,  3159  in  1755,  4321  in  1774,  and  4355  in  1776.  From  the 
original  town  were  set  off  Glocester  and  Smithfield  in  1730, 
Cranston  in  1754,  Johnston  in  1759,  and  North  Providence  in 
1765. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  17 

In  1683  John  Whipple  complained  that  the  order  previously 
passed,  to  set  aside  school  lands,*  had  not  been  complied  with. 
There  was  at  least  one  schoolmaster  in  Providence  at  that 
period,  for  in  1684  William  Turpin,  who  described  himself  as 
the  town  schoolmaster,  asked  that  the  school  lands  be  set  out 
to  him.  Of  William  Turpin  Judge  Staples  wrote  that  his 
interest  in  education  was  a  stepping-stone  to  honor,  if  not  to 
fortune;  that  he  represented  Providence  in  the  General  Assem- 
bly in  1722-23,  was  Town  Clerk  in  1727,  and  died  in  office 
while  Town  Treasurer  in  1744.  But  William  Turpin,  school- 
master, died  in  1709,  leaving  a  son  named  William,  whose 
record  of  public  service  Judge  Staples  ascribed  to  his  father. 
The  similarity  of  names  no  doubt  misled  the  Annalist. 

John  Dexter,  William  Hopkins,  Epenetus  Olney,  William 
Turpin,  Joseph  Whipple,  John  Smith,  Philip  Tillinghast  and 
Joseph  Smith,  in  1695-6,  asked  for  "a  small  spot  of  land  to  erect 
a  schoolhouse  upon  in  some  place  in  the  town  about  the  highway 
called  Dexter  lane  or  about  the  Stampers  Hill."  ,"A  spot  of 
land  40  feet  square"  was  granted  "where  it  may  be  most  con- 
venient." Dexter  lane  is  now  Olney  street,  and  the  name  of 
Stampers  Hill  is  still  preserved  by  Stampers  street,  a  narrow 
thoroughfare  almost  at  the  crest  of  Constitution  Hill,  as  North 
Main  street  crosses  Olney  street.  The  grant  was  to  be  null 
and  void  if  no  schoolhouse  was  built  within  a  considerable  tune. 
Henry  C.  Dorr  says  the  enterprise  failed  because  the  proprietors 
neglected  to  grant,  along  with  the  land,  timber,  of  which  the 
petitioners  stood  in  need.  There  is  no  record  of  any  kind  to 
indicate  that  a  schoolhouse  was  built,  although  Henry  R. 
Chace  located  a  schoolhouse  site  on  Olney  street,  between 
North  Main  and  Stampers  street,  on  his  map  of  Providence  in 
1770.  The  report  of  the  committee  on  school  property  in  1768 
did  not  mention  a  schoolhouse  in  the  north  section  of  the  town. 

*The  order  of  1663  setting  aside  106  acres  of  land  for  a  school. 


18  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

The  name  of  a  second  schoolmaster  appears  of  record  in  1735, 
when  George  Taylor  was  given  permission  to  keep  a  school  in 
one  of  the  chambers  of  the  Colony  House  at  Providence,  "on 
condition  that  the  glass  of  said  house  should  be  kept  in  con- 
stant good  repair,"  and  that  he  should  "erect  a  handsome 
sundial  in  front  of  said  house,  both  for  ornament  and  use." 
Taylor  was  an  Englishman.  That  he  tarried  in  Providence 
appears  from  the  town  record  for  1753,  when  George  Taylor 
was  given  leave  to  use  the  town  schoolhouse,  on  condition  that 
he  "school  or  teach  one  poor  child"  recommended  by  the  town 
schoolhouse  committee,  "gratis,  or  for  nothing."  From  the 
reminiscences  of  Samuel  Thurber  we  learn  that  Taylor's  school 
was  kept  for  church  scholars,  and  that  perhaps  he  received  some 
compensation  from  England. 

In  1754  Stephen  Jackson,  schoolmaster,  leased  the  town 
schoolhouse  for  £45,  old  tenor,  which  the  town  ordered  applied 
for  repairing  the  building.  Here  is  a  characteristic  example  of 
the  incompleteness  of  old  town  records.  When  was  the  school- 
house  built?  When  was  the  land  on  which  it  stood  set  off  as  a 
school  site?  There  is  no  record  to  fix  the  date  of  location  or 
building.  A  plat  of  warehouse  lots  on  Town  street,  made  in 
1747,  shows  a  school  lot  west  of  the  street,  which  is  now  called 
North  Main  street.  In  1752  the  town  granted  to  the  colony 
for  a  new  jail  "the  flats  in  the  Salt  river,  being  the  west  end 
of  the  lot  that  was  formerly  granted  for  the  use  of  a  school 
whereon  the  town  schoolhouse  in  said  Providence  standeth." 
This  entry  fixes  the  time  of  building  earlier  than  1752,  although 
the  first  school  committee  is  named  in  the  record  for  1752. 
That  the  school  kept  was  not  a  free  school  appears  from  the 
nature  of  the  agreements  with  George  Taylor  and  Stephen 
Jackson.  In  1764  the  Town  Clerk  was  authorized  to  lease  the 
schoolhouse  to  another  schoolmaster,  and  in  1765  the  property 
was  sold  in  exchange  for  the  Colony  House  lot,  the  Colony 
House  having  been  destroyed  by  fire  in  1758. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  19 

In  1751  Gideon  Comstock,  Alexander  Frazier,  James  Field, 
Thomas  Angell,  Barzillai  Richmond  and  Nehemiah  Sprague, 
citing  an  agreement  between  themselves  and  others  and  a  sub- 
scription of  money  for  the  purpose,  asked  for  permission  to 
build  a  schoolhouse  "on  the  vacant  land  at  the  Sowdy  Hill,  a 
little  above  Joseph  Snow,  junior's,  dwelling  house,  there  being 

room  to  set  it  on  and  leave  the  road feet  wide  on  each  side, 

which  will  oblige  us  the  subscribers  and  others  the  inhabitants 
who  are  willing  to  spend  their  money  for  leirning  and  for  the 
publick*  good."  The  request  was  granted,  but  the  lot  was 
found  to  be  too  small  for  the  proposed  schoolhouse,  and  the 
propiietors  located  their  school  upon  other  land,  at  what  is  now 
the  northwest  corner  of  Chapel  and  Mathewson  streets,  the 
latter  formerly  known  as  School  street.  This  was  the  first 
schoolhouse  west  of  the  river. 

There  was  still  another  schoolhouse  in  Providence  earlier  than 
1768,  located  by  Chace  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Power's  lane 
and  Back  street,  now  Power  and  Benefit  streets.  It  was  referred 
to  in  the  report  of  the  committee  which  recommended  public 
schools  in  1768  as  "the  schoolhouse  down-town,"  which  should 
not  be  purchased  by  the  town  because  it  would  cost  too  much. 

Among  other  indications  of  an  awakened  interest  in  educa- 
tion in  Providence  in  the  middle  of  the  18th  century  was  the 
purchase  of  a  library  in  London  by  Stephen  Hopkins  and  other 
subscribers,  who  obtained  permission  to  keep  the  books  in  the 
Colony  House,  an  arrangement  that  "would  provide  a  real 
ornament  to  the  house  and  afford  an  agreeable  amusement  to 
the  members  in  their  leisure  hours."  The  library  was  destroyed 
by  the  fire  which  razed  the  Colony  House  in  1758,  and  in  1759 
the  subscribers  were  granted  a  lottery  to  raise  money  to  replace 
the  books,  on  condition  that  they  should  thereafter  be  accessible 
to  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly.  In  1762  William 
Goddard  printed  the  first  Providence  newspaper,  the  Gazette. 
Gregory  Dexter,  a  companion  of  Roger  Williams,  was  the  first 


20  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

printer  in  Providence.  He  printed  Roger  Williams's  key  to  the 
Indian  language  in  London;  he  did  not  set  up  a  press  in  Provi- 
dence. In  1764  Rhode  Island  College,  later  known  as  Brown 
University,  was  chartered  and  located  temporarily  at  Warren. 
Providence,  Newport,  Warren  and  East  Greenwich  became 
rival  candidates  for  the  honor  of  becoming  the  permanent  home 
of  the  college,  which  fell  to  Providence  through  the  enterprise 
of  inhabitants  who  raised  about  $15,000  as  an  endowment. 

Affecting  schools  more  directly,  Joseph  Olney,  Esek  Hopkins, 
Elisha  Brown  and  John  Mawney  were  elected  a  schodl  com- 
mittee in  1752,  to  care  for  the  town  schoolhouse  and  to  appoint 
a  master.  Perhaps  this  committee  and  other  early  school 
committees  should  be  designated  schoolhouse  committees;  their 
duties  were  stated  explicitly  in  1756  as  being  "to  have  the 
general  oversight  and  care  of  the  town  schoolhouse,  as  well  as 
for  repairing  the  schoolhouse,  appointing  and  consulting  with 
the  master,  or  doing  what  else  may  be  needful  about  the  same, 
provided  that  the  town  be  put  to  no  expense  thereabout."  This  record 
makes  clear  also  the  general  attitude  of  the  town  of  Providence 
in  1756  toward  school  support.  There  was  no  inclination  to 
assume  the  burden  of  school  support  beyond  providing  a 
schoolhouse. 

The  centennial  of  the  Charter,  the  year  1763,  was  reached 
with  probably  three  schoolhouses  in  the  town  of  Providence — • 
the  town  schoolhouse,  by  that  time  in  poor  repair;  the  school- 
house  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  and,  possibly,  "the  school- 
house  down-town."  The  town  boasted  also  a  newspaper  and  a 
library,  and  preparations  were  being  made  for  the  chartering 
of  a  college. 

The  town  voted  in  1767  to  provide  four  schoolhouses  and  to 
place  the  schools  under  control  of  a  school  committee.  Com- 
mittees on  school  property  and  for  the  preparation  of  regulations 
were  appointed.  Both  committees  reported  Jan.  1,  1768. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  21 

The  committee  on  school  property  had  examined  "the  school- 
house  down-town,"  but  found  that  it  would  cost  too  much. 
While  the  schoolhouse  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  was  found 
convenient,  some  of  the  proprietors  refused  to  sell  their  interests 
to  the  town.  The  committee  recommended  the  building  of 
two  schoolhouses^  26x18x10  feet,  east  of  the  river,  one  at  the 
upper  and  the  other  at  the  lower  end  of  the  town,  but  that  until 
after  the  annual  town  meeting  no  further  action  be  taken  west 
of  the  river.  The  committee  recommended  also  the  construc- 
tion of  a  larger  brick  schoolhouse,  to  cost  £485,  on  the  old 
Colony  House  lot. 

The  committee  on  regulations  presented  an  elaborate  report 
in  the  form  of  an  ordinance  providing  that  the  proceeds  of  the 
sale  of  the  old  schoolhouse  property  should  be  applied  to  con- 
struction of  new  schoolhouses;  that  the  additional  cost  of  the 
new  enterprise  should  be  assumed  by  the  town;  that  £520  be 
raised  by  tax;  that  schoolmasters  be  provided  at  the  expense 
of  the  town;  that  a  school  committee  be  appointed,  repre- 
senting all  sections,  with  ample  powers  to  conduct  town  schools, 
engage  and  dismiss  schoolmasters  and  ushers,  but  with  no  power 
to  repair  schoolhouses  (a  power  still  denied  the  school  com- 
mittee of  Providence  and  retained  by  the  city  council).  The 
report  continued  thus : 

"  That  every  inhabitant  of  this  town  whether  they  be  free  of 
the  town  or  not,  shall  have  and  enjoy  an  equal  right  and  privilege 
of  sending  their  own  children,  and  the  children  of  others  that 
may  be  under  their  care,  for  instruction  and  bringing  up,  to 
any  or  all  of  the  said  schools.  And  that  each  and  every  scholar, 
before  they  be  admitted  into  any  of  the  small  schools,  shall  have 
learnt  their  letters  and  acquired  some  acquaintance  with  spelling. 
And  before  they  be  permitted  to  enter  the  larger  school,  they 
must  have  gained  considerable  knowledge  in  reading  and 
writing,  and  that  all  those  who  may  be  thus  qualified  shall  and 
may  be  admitted  to  all  the  advantages  of  education  that  may 
be  taught  in  either  of  the  respective  schools.  And  in  case  any 
dispute  should  arise,  touching  the  qualifications  of  any  child 
the  same  may  be  determined  by  the  school  committee. 


22  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

"That  not  exceeding  two  hours  in  each  day  shall  be  taken  up 
in  the  large  school  in  perfecting  the  scholars  in  reading,  accent- 
ing, pronouncing  and  properly  understanding  the  English 
tongue.  That  the  remaining  school  hours  shall  be  employed  in 
teaching  the  children  and  youth  in  writing,  arithmetic,  the 
various  branches  of  mathematics  and  the  learned  languages. 
The  whole  to  be  taught  in  one  or  separate  apartments  in  said 
house,  under  the  direction  of  said  committee,  as  the  circum- 
s.tances  of  said  school,  from  time  to  time,  shall  require,  and  as 
will  have  the  best  tendency  to  increase  and  spread  knowledge 
and  learning. 

"The  children  under  the  care  of  non-resident  freeholders 
shall  be  admitted  into  said  school,  provided  said  freeholders 
shall  pay  the  sum  of  twelve  shillings,  lawful  money,  in  the 
school  tax  annually;  and  also  those  inhabitants  of  the  town 
who  pay  twelve  shillings  annually  to  the  support  of  the  school, 
if  they  have  no  children  or  apprentices  of  their  own,  shall  have 
liberty  to  send  the  children  of  any  friend  or  relative  of  theirs 
living  out  of  this  town."* 

The  town  meeting  rejected  both  reports.  Moses  Brown, 
of  one  committee,  wrote  this  comment  upon  the  town's  action : 
"  1768,  Laid  before  the  town  by  the  committee,  but  a  number  of 
the  inhabitants  (and  what  is  most  surprising  and  remarkable, 
the  plan  of  a  free  school,  supported  by  a  tax,  was  rejected  by  the 
poorer  sort  of  the  people),  being  strangely  led  away  not  to  see 
their  own  as  well  as  the  public  interest  therein  (by  a  few  objectors 
at  first),  either  because  they  were  not  the  projectors,  or  had 
not  public  spirit  to  execute  so  laudable  a  design,  and  which  was 
first  voted  by  the  town  with  great  freedom." 

The  town  meeting  that  rejected  the  reports  did,  however, 
resolve  to  build  a  two-story  brick  schoolhouse,  30x40  feet,  near 
the  court  house  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  old  town 
schoolhouse,  a  tax  of  £100,  and  £182  17s,  to  be  raised  by  public 
subscription,  and  to  support  a  free  school  in  the  building. 
Public  subscriptions  twice  failed  to  reach  the  amount  desig- 
nated, but  in  July,  1768,  a  list  was  completed  and  building  was 
undertaken.  The  subscribers  were  incorporated  in  1770.  A 

*Small,  Early  N.  E.  Schools,  p  198,  cites  this  last  paragraph,  omitting  reference  to  the 
earlier  paragraphs  in  the  report,  and  to  the  disposition  which  was  made  of  the  report. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  23 

two-story  structure  was  erected,  the  lower  floor  controlled  by 
the  town,  the  upper  by  the  proprietors.  The  building  still 
stands  on  Meeting  street  close  to  the  Friends  Meeting  House. 
Both  floors  were  occupied  in  1770,  the  upper  by  Rhode  Island 
College,  and  the  lower  by  the  University  Grammar  School, 
while  the  college,  which  had  removed  from  Warren,  awaited 
the  completion  of  quarters  in  University  Hall.  Benjamin 
West,  the  astronomer,  kept  a  school  in  the  building  afterward, 
receiving  "  his  reward  for  educating  from  the  parents  of  those 
that  he  shall  teach." 

Stephen  Hopkins,  Jabez  Bowen  and  Moses  Brown,  the  last 
two  proprietors,  were  appointed  a  committee,  in  1772,  "to 
draw  up  regulations  for  the  town  schoolhouse,  and  to  procure 
and  agree  with  suitable  persons  to  keep  the  same  at  the  expense 
of  those  who  sent  their  children  and  youth  to  said  schools,  and 
to  do  everything  necessary  toward  rendering  said  school 
useful."  Except  that  the  town  owned  part  of  a  new  school- 
house,  little  progress  toward  free  schools  had  been  made. 

The  movement  that  failed  in  town  meeting  in  1768  bore 
other  fruit,  however.  Another  company  of  proprietors  was 
chartered  in  1768,  and  in  November  a  schoolhouse,  designed 
for  two  schools,  was  built  on  upper  Benefit  street,  on  the  site 
at  the  corner  of  Halsey  street,  now  occupied  by  a  brick  primary 
school  building.  This  schoolhouse  was  named  Whipple  Hall, 
for  Captain  Whipple,  who  donated  the  land.  The  school  was 
a  graded  school,  opening  with  George  Taylor,  Jr.,  in  charge  of 
the  upper  grade,  and  Sally  Jackson  the  lower.  E.  M.  Stone 
gives  the  following  list  of  teachers  who  succeeded  Taylor: 
John  Barrows,  Nathan  Downe,  Sunnier  Wood,  Joseph  Balch, 
Solomon  Bradford,  Abner  Tucker  and  John  Dexter. 

The  Revolutionary  War  terminated  school  activity  in  Provi- 
dence. The  college  was  closed,  University  Hall  serving  as  a 
barracks  for  French  soldiers.  Whipple  Hall  became  a  powder 
magazine  and  meeting  place  for  a  revolutionary  committee,  and 


24  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

the  Meeting  street  schoolhouse  became  a  chemical  laboratory 
for  the  manufacture  of  explosives. 

Portsmouth:— Population,  628  in  1708,  813  in  1730,  992  in 
1748,  1363  in  1755,  1512  in  1774,  1374  in  1776.  Besides  the 
new  schoolhouse  already  referred  to  as  ordered  built  in  July, 
1716,  another  school  was  built  in  the  south  part  of  the  town  in 
September,  1716,  on  recommendation  of  a  committee  which 
reported  that  it  had  considered  "how  excellent  an  ornament 
learning  is  to  mankind,  and  the  great  necessity  there  is  of  a 
public  schoolhouse  on  the  south  side."  The  town  made  an 
appropriation  and  appointed  a  committee  to  build  the  school- 
house  and  solicit  contributions  for  finishing  it.  Commenting 
on  the  phraseology  of  the  committee  report  and  the  designation 
of  a  special  necessity  on  the  south  side,  Arnold  concludes  that 
there  was  an  earlier  schoolhouse  in  some  other  part  of  the  town. 
He  had  overlooked  the  vote  of  July,  1716,  which  proved  his 
inference  correct.  Other  schoolhouses  were  erected  in  Ports- 
mouth as  follows:  Two  in  1722,  one  in  1746  near  Bristol 
Ferry,  one  in  1763  on  Prudence  Island,  and  one  in  1733  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  town,  the  last  upon  the  petition  of  William 
Brown  and  others,  who  undertook  the  expense  additional  to 
£30,  which  the  town  was  asked  to  appropriate. 

Newport.— Population,  2203  in  1708,  4640  in  1738,  6508  in 
1748,  6753  in  1755,  9209  in  1774,  5299  in  1776.  Middletown 
was  set  off  from  Newport  in  1743.  Newport  was  the  largest 
town  in  the  colony.  The  early  records  of  Newport  were  ship- 
wrecked in  Hell  Gate  while  being  taken  to  New  York  during 
the  Revolutionary  War.  Although  the  books  were  subse- 
quently recovered,  a  large  part  of  the  records  were  damaged 
irreparably. 

The  early  records  preserve  the  names  of  two  successors  of 
Robert  Lenthal,  each  of  whom  had  the  use  of  the  schoolhouse, 
and  the  profits  of  the  school  land.  They  were  John  Jethro  and 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  25 

Thomas  Fox.  In  1661  the  school  land  set  apart  in  1640  was 
exchanged  for  other  land.  An  additional  grant  of  school  land 
was  made  in  1697. 

Little  is  known  of  the  first  schoolhouse  in  Newport  beyond 
that  it  was  standing  in  1685  and  had  fallen  into  decay  in  1700, 
though  the  timber  in  it  was  such  that  Ebenezer  Mann  asked  and 
received  permission  to  take  some  of  it  for  use  in  building  his 
new  house.  In  1706  the  town  sold  land  to  finish  the  "school- 
house  in  or  near  the  market  place  in  Newport."  This  probably 
was  the  schoolhouse  that  the  town  voted  to  build  in  1704. 
The  vote  to  build  was  subsequently  rescinded,  when  land  was 
granted  to  Samuel  Cranston  and  others  for  the  purpose  of  a 
schoolhouse.  Had  the  proprietors  abandoned  their  enterprise 
in  1706?  A  tax  of  £150  was  laid  to  supplement  the  proceeds 
of  the  sale  of  lands,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  north  part  of  the 
town  were  exempted  because  they  lived  too  far  off  to  send  their 
children  to  the  school.  The  town  council  was  ordered,  in  1708, 
to  take  the  schoolhouse  into  their  hands,  to  manage  all  the 
prudential  affairs  belonging  to  the  school,  always  reserving  to 
the  quarterly  meeting  of  the  town  the  power  of  choosing  the 
schoolmaster.  William  Gilbert  was  chosen  schoolmaster  in 
1709,  receiving  "the  benefit  of  the  school  land,  viz.,  the  chamber 
and  sellar  and  the  profits  arising  from  the  school  land  in  this  part 
of  the  town,  and  some  conveniency  for  keeping  of  fire  in  the 
winter  season."  The  year  following  William  Gallaway  was 
granted  "the  liberty  of  teaching  a  Latin  school  in  the  two  little 
rooms  in  the  schoolhouse  of  this  town." 

The  first  schoolmaster  elected  in  town  meeting  was  John 
Callender,  June  3,  1746.  In  1748  Mr.  Callender  died;  his 
successor  was  Terrence  Donally. 

Another  schoolhouse  was  ordered  built  in  1713,  and  106  acres 
of  land  were  granted  in  1723  for  a  school  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  town,  called  the  Woods,  now  Middletown.  "All  the  public 
schoolhouses  in  the  precinct  of  Newport,"  including  "par- 


26  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

ticularly  the  great  schoolhouse,"  were  ordered  repaired  in  1726 
and  "paid  out  of  the  treasury."  The  order  for  building  in  the 
Woods  in  1723  may  be  interpreted  as  providing  for  two  school- 
houses;  a  vote  in  1729  of  £10  each  for  two  schoolmasters  in  the 
Woods  section  lends  color  to  the  interpretation.  Schoolmasters 
were  appointed  from  time  to  time,  and  it  is  fair  to  presume  that 
schools  were  kept  in  Newport  with  some  approximation  to 
regularity. 

James  Franklin,  elder  brother  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  set  up 
the  first  printing  press  in  Newport  in  1727,  and  began  publishing 
the  Rhode  Island  Gazette,  the  first  Rhode  Island  newspaper,  in 
1732.  James  Franklin*  established  the  Newport  Mercury 
in  1758.  The  Redwood  Library  was  incorporated  in  1747. 

A  sale  of  school  land  was  authorized  in  1763.  Higginson, 
Stockwell  and  Field  report  the  school  land  as  divided  into  lots 
and  sold  or  leased  in  1663,  the  proceeds  to  be  applied  to  educa- 
ting poor  children.  The  same  authors  report  a  similar  division 
and  sale  of  land  in  1763.  Field  follows  the  narrative  of  Higgin- 
son and  Stockwell  closely.  Higginson  and  Stockwell  cite  Henry 
Barnard's  Journal  of  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruction 
as  authority  for  a  sale  in  1663.  Barnard  does  not  mention  the 
sale  in  1763.  If  Barnard  is  not  in  error,  the  town  of  Newport 
in  1663  did  exactly  what  it  voted  in  precisely  the  same  language 
to  do  again  in  1763,  just  a  century  later.  There  is  no  existing 
public  record  of  a  sale  of  school  lands  in  Newport  in  1663.  The 
language  of  the  ordinance  of  1763  follows:  "That  the  monies 
arising  from  the  sale  of  said  lots  and  also  the  annual  quit  rents 
forever,  shall  be  paid  to  the  town  treasurer  for  the  time  being, 
and  that  the  same-shall  be '  a  fund  for  the  schooling  and  educating 
of  poor  children,  according  to  the  discretion  of  the  town  council, 
for  the  time  being,  who  are  hereby  empowered  to  direct,  regu- 
late and  manage  the  said  charity  in  behalf  of  said  town  to  the 
best  advantage,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning 

*Son  of  the  James  Franklin  already  mentioned. 


COLONIAL  SCHOOLS.  27 

thereof.'  '  The  language  quoted  by  Henry  Barnard  is  placed 
within  single  quotation  marks.  One  may  venture  to  guess 
that  the  date  as  given  by  Barnard  results  from  a  typographical 
error,  and  that  it  was  intended  for  1763.  And,  besides,  it  seems 
altogether  unlikely  that  land  in  houselot  parcels  would  be  in 
demand  in  1663,  whereas  in  1763  Newport  was  a  thriving 
commercial  centre  and  probably  compactly  built  in  some  sec- 
tions. Higginson,  Stockwell  and  Field,  however,  report  both  the 
quotation  from  Barnard  and  the  full  text  of  the  ordinance  of 
1763.  The  proceeds  of  the  sale  in  1763  were  used  many  years 
later  to  start  Newport's  venture  with  free  public  schools. 

The  public  schools  of  Newport  were  tuition  schools,  with 
special  provision  for  free  education  for  poor  children.  Side  by 
side  with  them  nourished  private  schools.  There  were,  besides 
the  public  schools,  at  least  two  other  opportunities  for  education 
open  to  poor  children.  By  the  will  of  Nathaniel  Kay  of  London, 
Trinity  Church  received  land  and  over  £400  in  currency  with 
which  to  establish  a  school,  on  condition  that  it  "teach  ten 
poor  boys  their  grammar  and  mathematics  gratis."  Mary 
Brett  in  1773  kept  a  school  on  High  street  for  young  negroes. 
The  school  had  been  endowed  by  benevolent  clergymen  of  the 
Church  of  England,  living  in  London,  with  a  "handsome  fund" 
to  instruct  30  negro  children  in  reading,  sewing,  etc. 

The  town  schoolhouse  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1774;  it  was 
not  rebuilt.  The  Revolutionary  War,  and  the  occupation  of 
Newport,  first  by  the  British,  and  subsequently  by  the  French, 
closed  the  first  chapter  of  the  history  of  public  schools  in  New- 
port. Nearly  half  a  century  was  destined  to  pass  before  New- 
port as  a  town  again  undertook  public  education. 

Warwick.— Population,  480  in  1708,  1178  in  1730,  1782  in 
1748,  1911  in  1755,  2438  in  1774,  2376  in  1776.  Coventry  was 
set  off  from  Warwick  in  1741.  A  schoolhouse,  used  also  for 
town  meetings,  was  built  in  Old  Warwick  in  1716.  It  was  a 
proprietors'  school.  The  town  voted  in  1716: 


28  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

"Whereas  a  hous  hath  lately  bin  built  upon  the  towne  orchard 
for  a  schoole  hous,  and  a  great  part  of  the  expense  hath  bin  paid 
by  some  partickular  persons,  thereupon,  upon  further  con- 
sideration, it  is  surrendered  up  to  be  for  the  use  of  the  towne 
meetings  upon  such  occasions  only,  reserving  the  liberty  that  it 
may  be  still  for  the  use  of  a  schoole  hous  for  themselves  and  the 
rest  of  the  towne  that  shall  see  cause,  and  remaining  part  of  the 
cost  and  charge  to  be  paid  by  a  rate  levied  upon  the  whole 
towne,  the  sum  of  £130  in  money  or  pay  equivalent  to  be  paid 
to  those  that  built  the  hous  as  above,  s'd  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
next  towne  rate,  therefore,  we,  the  proprietors,  for  further 
encouragement  of  the  said  schoole,  we  doe  by  these  presents 
ennex  the  the  above  said  lot  and  orchard  thereunto  for  the  use 
of  said  schoole." 

The  vote  of  the  town  meant  that  the  proprietors  of  the 
schoolhouse  had  agreed  to  permit  the  town  to  use  it  for  town 

• 

meetings,  and  that  the  town  had  assumed  the  burden  of  the 
cost  of  building  to  the  extent  of  £130,  and  had  granted  the  use 
of  the  lot  on  which  the  school  stood  and  the  orchard  for  use 
with  the  school.  Except  for  the  special  use  as  a  meeting  place, 
the  arrangement  was  of  a  type  frequently  observed  in  early 
Rhode  Island  school  history — a  land  grant  and  some  assistance 
for  the  encouragement  of  proprietors  undertaking  the  building 
of  a  schoolhouse. 

The  town  meeting  that  voted  thus  met  at  the  home  of  James 
Carder,  father  of  Joseph  Carder,  one  of  the  early  teachers. 
Other  teachers  in  colonial  times  in  Warwick  were  Charles 
Morris,  Thomas  Lippitt  and  Ephraim  Arnold.  Warwick  closes 
the  list  of  four  original  towns.  All  had  made  some  provision 
for  schools  or  the  encouragement  of  schools. 

East  Greenwich  was  incorporated  in  1677;  West  Greenwich 
was  set  off  from  East  Greenwich  in  1741.  No  record  has  been 
found  of  town  provision  for  schools  before  the  Revolution.  In 
1774  the  General  Assembly  granted  a  lottery  to  inhabitants  of 
East  Greenwich  for  the  purpose  of  raising  $600  for  schools. 

Smithfield  was  taken  from  Providence  in  1730-1731.  It 
comprised  the  territory  now  occupied  by  Smithfield,  North 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  29 

Smithfield,  Lincoln,  Central  Falls  and  part  of  Woonsocket.  In 
1771  a  meeting  of  Friends  at  Woonsocket  voted :  "  It  is  thought 
necessary  that  poor  children  be  schooled."  The  Friends  in 
1777  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up  a  plan  for  establishing 
a  free  school  among  the  Friends.  The  plan  adopted  provided 
for  the  appropriation  of  a  donation  made  by  Rebekah  Thayer 
toward  the  support  of  a  school.  The  school  was  migratory, 
the  committee  having  charge  to  keep  it  from  time  to  time  in 
different  places.  The  committee  was  empowered  to  select  and 
hire  a  teacher,  to  raise  subscriptions  for  the  support  of  the  school 
and  to  select  among  the  youth  in  the  families  of  Friends  those 
whose  circumstances  entitled  them  to  schooling  without  charge 
under  the  donation. 

Exeter  was  set  off  from  North  Kingstown  in  1742-1743.  In 
1696  Samuel  Sewall  of  Boston  donated  500  acres  of  land  in 
Exeter  to  maintain  a  grammar  school  in  the  district,  but  no 
action  was  taken  by  the  town  until  1766,  when  the  General 
Assembly  authorized  the  town  to  accept  the  gift  and  to  build  a 
schoolhouse  on  the  Ten  Rod  road. 

Middletown,  the  "Woods,"  was  set  off  from  Newport  in  1743. 
As  early  as  1702  six  acres  of  land  were  set  aside  in  what  was  to 
be  Middletown,  as  school  land.  More  land  was  set  aside  for 
school  purposes,  later,  and  Newport  provided  at  least  one  school- 
house  for  the  section  in  1723,  though  the  records  indicate  the 
possibility  that  two  schoolhouses  were  to  be  constructed,  it 
being  ordered  that  £20  apiece  be  paid  out  of  the  town  treasury 
for  the  building  of  the  schoolhouse  in  the  Woods."  At  the  first 
town  meeting  in  1743,  a  motion  to  repair  the  schoolhouse  was 
presented,  and  in  1753  repairs  were  ordered  on  the  Eastmoss 
(possibly  eastmost)  schoolhouse.  In  1754  the  town  appointed 
a  school  committee,  \\  ith  authority  to  hire  or  agree  with  a  good 
schoolmaster  to  keep  school,  one-half  time  in  the  east  school- 
house,  and  one-half  time  in  the  west  schoolhouse.  The  school- 


30  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

master  was  to  receive  the  income  from  the  school  land,  tuition 
from  his  pupils  at  a  rate  to  be  fixed  by  the  school  committee, 
and  from  the  treasury  the  balance  necessary  to  make  up  the 
salary  agreed  upon.  Two  years  later  the  school  committee  was 
abolished,  and  power  was  given  the  town  council  to  rent  the 
school  lands  and  hire  a  schoolmaster,  an  important  change  if  it 
meant  that  the  schools  were  to  become  free  public  schools  in 
fact.  The  town  receded  from  its  advanced  position,  however, 
and  in  August,  1747,  Edmund  Tew  was  engaged  as  schoolmaster, 
to  keep  school  for  two  months,  receiving  tuition  and  £5  out  of 
the  rents  of  the  school  land.  Edmund  Tew  was  succeeded  by 
Ebenezer  Reed.  Varying  terms  were  made  with  successive 
schoolmasters,  some  paying  rent  for  the  schoolhouse.  In  1754 
the  town  was  divided  into  school  districts. 

THE  DISPUTED  TERRITORY. 

By  royal  decree  in  1747,  confirming  Rhode  Island's  claim  to 
the  eastern  boundary  line  described  in  the  charter  of  1663, 
Cumberland,  Bristol,  Tiverton,  Little  Compton  and  Warren, 
including  Barrington,  were  added  to  the  colony.  Bristol, 
Warren  and  Barrington  had  schools  when  they  became  Rhode 
Island  towns.  No  record  of  early  schools  in  Tiverton  or  Little 
Compton  has  been  found,  Massachusetts  law  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  Cumberland,  perhaps,  participated  in  the 
activity  of  the  Woonsocket  Friends,  already  mentioned  under 
Smithfield. 

Barrington  was  set  off  from  Warren  in  1770.  School  activity 
in  Warren  began  in  the  Barrington  section  while  Barrington 
was  held  as  part  of  Swansea,  Bristol  county,  Massachusetts. 
In  1673  John  Myles,  pastor  of  the  church,  was  employed  as 
schoolmaster  in  a  school  for  "the  teaching  of  grammar,  rhetoric 
and  arithmetic,  and  the  tongues  of  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew; 
also  to  read  English  and  to  write."  His  salary  was  fixed  at  £40 
per  annum  in  currency.  The  school  was  not  a  free  school. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  31 

The  town  records  show  a  long  line  of  successors  to  John  Myles 
and  indicate  that  schools  were  kept  in  Barrington  regularly. 
Barrington  was  divided  into  three  school  districts  in  1770. 

Warren  was  the  first  home  of  Rhode  Island  College  in  1764, 
and  of  the  University  Grammar  School,  which  Dr.  Manning 
established  as  a  preparatory  school  and  conducted  in  the 
parsonage  of  the  Baptist  Church.  The  General  Assembly 
granted  a  lottery  to  provide  money  to  complete  the  parsonage 
for  use  by  Dr.  Manning's  students. 

Bristol  was  settled  in  1680.  Two  years  later  the  town  voted: 
"That  each  person  that  hath  children  ready  to  go  to  school 
shall  pay  three  pence  a  week  for  each  child's  schooling  to  the 
schoolmaster,  and  the  town  by  rate,  according  to  each  ratable 
estate,  shall  make  the  wages  to  amount  to  £24  the  year.  The 
selectmen  to  look  out  a  grammar  schoolmaster,  and  use  their 
endeavor  to  obtain  £5  of  the  Cape  money  granted  for  such  an 
end."  A  houselot,  ten  acres  of  land  and  commonage  were 
voted  for  the  schoolmaster's  use.  The  Cape  money  was  the 
revenue  that  Plymouth  Colony  derived  from  profits  arising  from 
fishing  with  nets  or  seines  at  Cape  Cod  for  mackerel,  bass  or 
herring,  which  the  colony  in  1670  granted  "to  be  improved  for 
and  toward  a  free  school  in  some  town  in  this  jurisdiction,  for 
the  training  up  of  youth  in  literature  for  the  good  and  benefit  of 
posterity."  In  1677  the  colony  ordered  the  Cape  money  dis- 
tributed "to  such  towns  as  have  such  grammar  schools,  not 
exceeding  £5  per  annum  to  any  one  town."  Because  Bristol 
does  not  appear  in  the  list  of  towns  which  received  Cape  money, 
Small  concluded*  that  probably  no  school  was  established  in 
Bristol  pursuant  to  the  vote  in  1682,  The  records  of  Cape 
money  distribution  do  not  extend  beyond  1684.  At  least  as 
early  as  1685,  perhaps  earlier,  Samuel  Cobbitt  was  serving  as 
town  schoolmaster  in  Bristol. 

*"  Early  N.  E.  Schools."  p.  17. 


32  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

In  1699  Bristol  was  divided  into  two  school  districts,  and  in 
1700  £20  was  voted  for  the  south  district  on  condition  that  it 
"improved  a  schoolmaster "  eight  months  of  the  year,  and  £10 
to  the  north  district  for  a  four  months  school.  In  1709  the 
same  schoolmaster  served  both  districts,  teaching  three  winter 
months  on  the  Neck  and  the  balance  of  the  year  in  "the  town." 

At  the  beginning  schools  in  Bristol  were  taught  in  rooms  in 
private  houses,  hired  and  paid  for  by  the  town.  The  first 
appropriation  for  erecting  a  town  schoolhouse  was  made  in 
1702,  when  £20  was  voted  for  a  schoolhouse  in  the  compact  part 
of  the  town.  Twenty-five  years  later  £50  was  appropriated 
to  build  a  schoolhouse,  26x20  feet,,  in  the  town,  and  the  same 
year,  1727,  the  town  paid  £20  for  a  schoolhouse  already  built 
on  the  Neck  by  private  parties.  The  school  on  the  Neck  was 
sold  in  1765. 

Nathaniel  Byfield's  gift  of  school  land  in  1714  "for  and  hi 
consideration  of  a  due  regard  which  he  had  for  the  advancement 
of  learning  and  good  education,"  made  simple  the  problem  of 
school  support.  The  Byfield  land  yielded  an  almost  unfailing 
income,  which  relieved,  the  people  of  the  burden  of  direct  taxa- 
tion for  schools  and  likewise  removed  any  temptation  to  back- 
sliding. Beginning  in  1718,  money  collected  for  licenses  for 
entertainments  was  appropriated  to  school  support.  The  town 
records  contain  a  long  list  of  names  of  teachers,  engaged  from 
tune  to  time,  and  show  that  schools  were  kept  regularly  in  the 
town  down  to  1772.  In  1751  Bristol  appointed  its  first  school 
committee,  and  probably  the  first  school  committee  in  Rhode 
Island.*  St.  Michael's  Church,  Bristol,  like  Trinity  Church, 
Newport,  received  a  legacy  from  Nathaniel  Kay,  to  be  used 
for  the  education  of  poor  boys. 

For  Westerly,  incorporated  in  1669;  New  Shoreham,  1672; 
North  Kingstown,  1674;  Jamestown,  1678;  South  Kingstown, 
1722;  Scituate  and  Glocester,  1730;  Charlestown,  1738;  West 
Greenwich  and  Coventry,  1741;  Cumberland  (except  Woon- 

*Providence,  1752;  Middletown,  1754. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  33 

socket,  see  Smithfield),  Little  Compton  and  Tiverton,  1747; 
Richmond,  1747;  Cranston,  1754;  Hopkinton,  1757;  Johnston, 
1759,  and  North  Providence,  1765,  records  of  public  school 
support  before  the  Revolution  have  not  been  found.  .These 
towns  had  a  combined  population  of  31,719  out  of  55,011,  for  the 
colony,  in  1776.  For  the  most  part  they  were  towns  of  large 
area,  and  their  population  was  scattered1.  Before  the  war  the 
interests  of  Rhode  Island  were  agricultural  and  commercial; 
the  era  of  industry  and  the  factory  village  had  not  come.  The 
absence  of  town  records  does  not  prove  that  these  towns  were 
without  schools. 

Viewing  the  colony  as  a  whole,  in  1770,  in  provision  for 
public  education,  the  .three  towns  on  the  Island  of  Rhode 
Island  —  Newport,  Portsmouth  and  Middletown  —  and  Bar- 
rington,  Warren  and  Bristol  were  leading.  The  situation  in 
Providence  was  hopeful,  though  far  from  being  all  that  could 
be  wished  for.  Providence  was  not  satisfied  with  "public 
schools"  in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  was  commonly  used 
in  the  eighteenth  century;  the  movement  molding  public 
opinion  there  and  pressing  for  expression  aimed  at  public  schools 
free  for  all  children  without  respect  to  ability  or  inability  to  pay 
tuition. 

THE  RHODE  ISLAND  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  early  town  records  show  that,  while  no  town  undertook 
responsibility  for  the  provision  and  maintenance  of  schools 
exclusively  at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayers,  there  were  four 
ways  in  which  public  education  was  assisted  and  encouraged, 
viz.: 

1.  By  land  grants  of  school  sites,  houselots  for  school- 
masters and  tracts  the  income  of  which  was  devoted  to  school 
support.* 

2.  By  building  schoolhouses  as  public  property,  to  be  rented 
or  leased,  or  let  rent  free  to  a  schoolmaster.     It  seems  likely 

*Providence,  Newport,  Middletown,  Bristol. 


34  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

that  in  some  instances  the  schoolhouse  was  a  dwelling  for  the 
master,  as  well  as  a  schoolhouse.* 

3.  By  the  employment  of  a  town  schoolmaster  and  the 
guaranty  of  some  part  of  his  salary,  or  the  part  thereof  necessary 
to  raise  his  receipts  from  tuition  from  his  pupils  or  other  sources 
to  a  fixed  minimum  salary.f 

4.  By  grants  of  school  sites  or  money  to  groups  of  inhabi- 
tants organized  as  school  societies  to  maintain  quasi-public 
schools.! 

The  schools  thus  assisted  and  encouraged  were  not  free 
schools,  except  that  provision  sometimes  was  made  for  free 
instruction  for  poor  children.  Responsibility  for  the  training 
of  the  children  of  the  community  rested  upon  individuals, 
parents  or  families,  primarily.  Towns  recognized  an  obligation 
to  contribute  to  and  encourage  so  desirable  an  institution  as  a 
school  for  the  youth.  As  for  the  colony — that  is,  the  govern- 
ment exercising  legislative  functions  through  the  General  Assem- 
bly— Rhode  Island  became  a  patron  of  education  on  lines 
somewhat  similar  to  those  already  adopted  by  the  towns. 
The  earliest  measure  of  an  educational  character  permitted 
use  of  a  room  in  the  Colony  House  in  Providence  for  library 
purposes;  when  the  library  was  destroyed  by  fire,  the  owners 
were  granted  a  lottery  franchise  to  assist  in  replacing  the 
library.  The  charter  of  Rhode  Island  College  in  1764  ex- 
empted the  college  estate  from  taxation,  a  privilege  of  increasing 
value  as  years  rolled  by  and  the  college  endowment  grew,  and 
worth  in  the  nineteenth  century  not  less,  it  is  estimated,  than 
$80,000  annually. 

AN  EVALUATION. 

The  unfavorable  estimate  of  Rhode  Island's  school  history 
which  has  prevailed  generally,  arises  largely  from  the  error  of 

*Providence,  Newport,  Portsmouth,  Middletown,  Bristol. 
tNewport,  Middletown,  Barrington,  Bristol. 
JProvidence,  Newport,  Warwick. 


COLONIAL   SCHOOLS.  35 

studying  school  progress  exclusively  in  legislation.  The  his- 
torians of  the  past  who  found  general  school  laws  in  Massachu- 
setts and  Connecticut  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  none  in  Rhode  Island  before  1828,  reached  the  conclusion 
that  Rhode  Islanders  were  backward  in  providing  schools, 
ignoring  the  fact  that  there  were  193  schoolhouses  hi  Rhode 
Island  in  1828.  It  is,  and  has  been,  characteristic  of  Rhode 
Island  school  history  that  progress  and  improvement  precede 
legislation;  that  experiments  have  been  worked  out  in  some 
towns  before  the  enactment  of  laws.  Indeed,  some  Rhode 
Island  school  law  has  aimed  to  prevent  retrogression  from 
standards  already  attained  without  general  laws. 

Following  the  original  error  arising  from  comparison  of 
legislation,  without  the  saving  grace  of  studying  its  enforcement 
or  observance,  historians  have  invented  reasons  for  their  con- 
clusions that  should  differentiate  the  cradle  of  American 
democracy  from  its  neighbors.  It  is  positively  certain  that 
the  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  ordinances  did  not  build  a 
single  schoolhouse  or  establish  a  single  school,  and  that  the  early 
legislation  in  both  colonies  did  not  provide  ways  and  means  for 
aiding  schools,  whereas  the  first  Rhode  Island  general  school 
law  was  an  appropriation  measure.  Small's  "Early  New 
England  Schools"  demonstrates  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt 
that  school  beginnings  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  did 
not  differ  materially  from  school  beginnings  in  Rhode  Island. 
The  Massachusetts  law  of  1647,  requiring  every  town  of  50 
families  to  provide  a  school,  exempted  towns  with  49  families. 
It  is  clear,  also,  that  provision  for  schools  did  not  follow  imme- 
diately the  establishment  of  settlements  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut. 

Schoolhouses  in  the  neighboring  colonies  were  neither  better 
nor  worse  than  those  in  Rhode  Island;  teachers  were  no  better 
paid  for  their  services;  the  length  of  the  school  year  did  not 
vary  greatly.  There  was  one  important  difference  between 


36  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

Rhode  Island  and  her  neighbors.  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut were  theocratic;  Rhode  Island  was  the  home  of  com- 
plete religious  freedom.  The  Massachusetts  law  of  1642  would 
have  violated  the  basic  principle  of  liberty  of  conscience  for 
•which  Rhode  Island  has  always  stood.  The  type  of  school 
first  founded  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  would  have 
been  an  anomaly  in  Rhode  Island. 

The  people  of  Rhode  Island  began,  in  the  earliest  years  of 
the  colony,  to  work  out — in  their  own  way — the  problem  of 
educating  the  youth.  The  unimpeachable  evidence  of  records 
and  the  fair  presumption  of  continuity  amply  warrant  the 
conclusion  that  Rhode  Island  has  not  deserved  a  reputation 
for  backwardness  in  education.  There  is  much  in  the  history 
of  colonial  education  of  which  Rhode  Island  may  well  be  proud. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SCHOOL 
SYSTEM. 


Interest  in  education  was  revived  and  extended  in  Rhode 
Island  almost  immediately  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  although  the  establishment  of  a  state  system  of  free  public 
schools  under  general  laws  still  lay  far  away  in  the  future. 
In  the  half-century  after  the  war  the  foundations  of  a  state 
system  were  laid  securely  in  the  towns.  Private  schools 
flourished,  maintained  by  the  patronage  of  those  who  as  in- 
dividuals realized  the  advantages  that  education  would  secure 
for  their  children.  This  period  witnessed  the  rise  of  the  school 
society,  wherein  individuals  combined  and  co-operated  in  pro- 
viding education  for  the  children  of  the  group.  The  organiza- 
tion of  the  school  society  varied  in  form,  from  the  elementary, 
almost  primitive  combination  of  individuals  who  co-operated 
to  hire  or  furnish  a  room  for  a  school  and  to  engage  a  teacher 
for  a  few  months,  to  the  incorporated  society  which  built  a 
schoolhouse  and  provided  instruction  regularly.  In  several 
towns  the  school  district  organizations  under  the  state  school 
laws  recognized  the  existing  school  societies,  and  society  school- 
houses  became  the  homes  of  public  schools.  In  towns  where 
public  schools  had  been  maintained  previous  to  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  further  progress  was  made,  as  a  rule,  after  the 
war.  In  two  towns  free  public  schools  were  established  and 
maintained  before  the  state  made  provision  for  the  support 
of  public  schools. 


38  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Between  1775  and  1800  the  following  books,  mostly  text- 
books adapted  for  use  in  schools,  were  published  by  Rhode 
Island  printers:  Four  editions  of  the  New  England  Primer, 
in  1775,  1782,  1785,  and  1800;  two  editions  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Spelling  Book,  in  1782  and  1789 ;  Ross's  American  Latin 
Grammar,  in  1780;  Burr's  American  Latin  Grammar,  in  1794; 
the  Universal  Spelling  Book,  in  1784;  the  American  Youth's 
Mathematics,  in  1790;  Wilkinson's  "The  Federal  Calculator," 
in  1795;  the  Young  Ladies'  and  Gentlemen's  Preceptor,  in 
1797.  Fox's  "  Instructions  for  Right  Spelling"  was  published 
in  Rhode  Island  in  1737. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  RESPONSIBILITY. 

Regarding  the  education  of  the  child,  consistently  with  early 
Rhode  Island  school  history,  as  primarily  a  responsibility  resting 
upon  the  individual,  parent  or  family,  there  were,  until  educa- 
tion became  socialized  and  the  state  provided  free  public 
schools,  several  ways  in  which  this  obligation  might  be  fulfilled : 

First,  the  parent,  himself  or  herself,  might  become  the  family 
teacher,  the  latter  exemplifying  the  school  of  the  mother's 
knee,  prototype  of  the  dame  school,  familiar  even  less  than  a 
century  ago,  in  which  the  versatile  housewife  divided  her 
attention  betwixt  household  economics  and  the  instruction  of 
the  youth  of  the  neighborhood. 

Secondly,  the  teacher  might  be  a  professional  instructor, 
exercising  his  calling  as  an  individual  entrepreneur,  or  perhaps 
combining  a  vocation  and  an  avocation,  as  did  William  Turpin, 
the  innkeeper-schoolmaster  of  Providence.  Possibilities  in  this 
category  range  from  the  pastor  of  the  church,  whose  business 
was  the  saving  of  good  souls,  to  the  village  cobbler,  a  mender  of 
bad  soles,  or  perhaps  an  itinerant  tinker,  who  could  rehabilitate 
pots,  pans,  kettles  and  other  household  paraphernalia,  while 
he  tarried  in  the  neighborhood  teaching  school  a  few  months  in 
the  year.  The  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  early  half 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  39 

of  the  nineteenth  centuries  witnessed  the  coming  to  New  Eng- 
land of  itinerant  Irish  schoolmasters,  many  of  whom  settled 
-down  and  became  permanent  residents,  leaving  memories  still 
cherished  in  connection  with  early  American  school  history. 

Thirdly,  co-operation  is  one  of  the  most  economical  solutions 
of  the  problem  of  supplying  a  common  need,  and  this  rule 
applies  to  education  as  well  as  to 'other  necessities.  In  some 
instances  in  Rhode  Island  co-operation  functioned  as  a  broad- 
ening of  family  responsibility  to  embrace  a  larger  family,  such 
as  the  combination  of  the  four  Kenyon  brothers  in  Richmond.* 
In  other  instances  co-operation  developed  in  neighborhood 
groups,  such  a  movement  producing  the  first  schoolhouse  west 
of  the  river  in  Providence.!  The  Society  of  Friends  was  the 
first  religious  organization  to  provide  a  school  for  its  children. 

Fourthly,  out  of  the  co-operative  school  organization  nat- 
urally developed  the  incorporated  school  society,  when  the 
property  interest  became  sufficiently  important  to  warrant  an 
organization  that  should  have  a  legal  personality  and  rights 
and  privileges  distinct  from  the  personal  rights  and  privileges 
of  its  members.  The  advance  from  co-operation  to  incorpora- 
tion was  merely  a  matter  of  form.  The  organization  was  still 
voluntary. 

Fifthly,  voluntary  co-operation  tends  to  become,  ultimately, 
involuntary  co-operation.  When  this  development  is  reached  the ' 
obligation  to  educate  the  young  becomes  communal  instead 
of  individual;  the  obligation  rests,  not  exclusively  upon  the 
parent  as  regards  his  children,  but  upon  all  citizens,  whether 
parents  or  not,  as  regards  all  the  children  of  the  community. 
The  burden  rests  primarily  upon  the  taxpayer  and  not  upon 
the  parent. 

A  student  of  purely  theoretical  social  evolution  encounters 
no  serious  difficulty  in  recognizing  universal  involuntary  co- 
operation as  the  fifth  term  in  a  series  the  third  and  fourth  of 

*Infra. 
fSupra. 


40  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

which  had  demonstrated  that  voluntary  co-operation  was 
advantageous.  These  are  the  prime  factors:  1.  Public  rec- 
ognition of  the  desirability  of  education  with  precedents  from 
1640.  2.  Similar  precedents  for  public  support  of  education. 
3.  Co-operation  at  a  highly  developed  stage,  though  still 
largety  voluntary,  and  aiming  at  a  purpose  rhythmically  con- 
sonant with  the  public  good.  4.  A  public  need — education  for 
all — not  supplied  by  existing  agencies  under  private  control. 
5.  Democracy  broadening  in  a  new  republic,  experiencing  in 
the  nineteenth  century  a  clear  appreciation  of  the  spirit  of 
Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity  which  had  dominated  the 
French  Revolution  more  than  its  American  prototype.  6.  A 
period  in  which  the  theoretical  and  idealistic  democracy  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  ripening  into  the  practical  democracy 
rough-hewn  by  Andrew  Jackson  and  perfected  by  Abraham 
Lincoln.  The  evolutionist  can  find  only  one  solution  of  this 
problem,  and  he  can  prove  his  solution  accurate  by  the  verdict 
of  history  that  it  actually  happened. 

This  chapter  is,  however,  a  pragmatic  study  aiming  to 
present  for  each  town  and  for  the  state,  as  nearly  as  has  been 
found,  a  complete  record  of  the  educational  activity  that  es- 
tablished the  foundations  for  universal  co-operation  and  a 
state  system  of  public  schools.  Precedents  before  the  fact  are 
•  more  impressive  than  sanctions  after  the  fact. 

It  is  not  possible  to  trace  in  any  town's  experience  all  the 
stages  of  the  development  of  consciousness  of  society's  duty  and 
responsibility  in  supplying  the  means  of  public  education;  the 
movement  was  natural.  Like  Topsy,  it  "jest  done  growed" 
and  the  line  of  progress  is  irregular,  unconventional,  asymmet- 
rical, and  uneven.  In  some  towns  little  advancement  was 
attained;  in  others  full  florescence  was  reached  before  the  state 
made  its  first  appropriation  for  the  support  of  public  schools. 
In  many  towns  only  crude  beginnings  were  made;  in  others 
the  start  was  more  propitious.  All  accomplished  something. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  41 

The  entire  period  was  alive  with  educational  activity,  wanting, 
however,  central  direction  and  control;  the  movement  was 
sporadic  at  first,  but  gradually  it  combined  to  produce  a  general 
uplift.  It  is  surprising,  indeed,  when  the  facts  are  collected, 
that  Rhode  Island  acquired  a  reputation  for  backwardness; 
it  was  not  entirely  deserved,  certainly. 

When  the  state  as  a  whole  is  viewed,  variations  appear 
somewhat  less  pronounced,  and  four  movements  may  be  dis- 
tinguished: First,  the  liberal  extension  of  educational  oppor- 
tunities and  the  increasing  number  of  schools;  second,  the 
growth  of  co-operation,  evidenced  by  the  development  of  the 
school  society;  third,  an  unmistakable  trend  toward  town  free 
public  schools;  fourth,  a  movement  for  state  support,  to  sup- 
plement the  town  systems.  The  towns  were  first  in  order. 

BARRINGTON,  BRISTOL  AND  BURRILLVILLE. 

Barrington  was  divided  into  three  school  districts  in  1770. 
There  were  two  schoolhouses  in  the  town  in  1819  and  three  in 
1828.  The  buildings  were  owned  by  inhabitants  and  held  by 
joint  ownership.  The  schools  were  not  town  schools.  The 
Barrington  Library  Association  was  incorporated  in  1806. 

Bristol,  in  1781,  engaged  Samuel  Bosworth  to  teach  a  school, 
hiring  a  room  for  the  purpose  while  the  town  schoolhquse 
was  being  made  fit  for  occupancy.  The.  old  schoolhouse, 
which  was  dilapidated  and  needed  almost  constant  repairs,  was ' 
replaced  by  a  new  building  in  1809,  after  six  years  of  agitation 
and  endeavor.  The  movement  was  undertaken  in  1803,  when 
a  committee  was  authorized  to  solicit  subscriptions.  The 
building  was  erected  finally  jointly  by  the  town,  which  made 
an  appropriation,  and  by  St.  Alban's  Lodge  of  Freemasons, 
which  owned  and  occupied  the  upper  story  as  a  lodgeroom. 
After  the  sale  of  the  schoolhouse  on  the  Neck  in  1765,  there  was 
no  schoolhouse  in  that  section  until  1802,  when  Peter  Church, 
William  DeWolf,  William  Coggeshall  and  other  inhabitants 


42  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

were  granted  permission  to  build  a  schoolhouse  on  the  ten-acre 
lot  on  the  main  road  to  Warren,  part  of  the  Byfield  donation.* 
The  dimensions  of  this  building  were  22x20  feet.  The  town 
was  divided  into  three  school  districts  in  1811,  but  the  North 
district  was  without  a  schoolhouse  until  1818,  when  certain  of 
the  inhabitants  erected  a  building  at  their  own  expense  on  a  lot 
owned  by  the  town.  The  Byfield  school  land  was  leased  for  a 
long  period  of  years  in  1811,  and  the  rents  were  reinvested;  the 
districting  of  the  town  was  principally  for  the  purpose  of  insur- 
ing an  equitable  division  of  the  annual  income.  In  1828 
Bristol  had  three  public  schoolhouses,  and  the  annual  appro- 
priation for  school  support  amounted  to  about  $350,  the  money 
being  derived  from  the  income  of  the  Byfield  donation,  rents, 
and  licenses  for  entertainments.  The  town  schools  were  not 
free  schools.  The  Bristol  Female  Charitable  Society  pro- 
vided schooling  for  indigent  girls.  The  state  granted  a  lottery 
in  1797  to  aid  an  academy  in  Bristol,  and  chartered  Mount 
Hope  Academy  in  1806.  A  private  school  on  the  Lancaster  plan 
was  conducted  in  the  Academy  building  in  1826. 

Burrillville  was  set  off  from  Glocester  in  1806.  The  early 
schoolhouses  were  built  by  proprietors,  and  the  teachers  were 
paid  by  the  parents  of  their  pupils.  There  were  ten  school- 
houses  in  Burrillville  in  1819,  and  eleven  in  1828,  rated  as  public 
schools,  although  the  town  appropriated  no  money  for  school 
support.  The  Burrillville  Library  was  incorporated  in  1821, 
and  the  Burrillville-Lafayette  Library  Company  in  1826. 

CHARLESTOWN,  COVENTRY,  CRANSTON  AND 
CUMBERLAND. 

Charlestown  was  set  off  from  Westerly  in  1738,  and  from 
Charlestown  Richmond  was  taken  in  1747.  In  1804  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  granted  a  lottery  to  build  a  schoolhouse  and 
meeting  house  in  Charlestown.  The  earliest  public  school- 

*See  Chapter  I. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  43 

house  in  the  town  was  that  of  the  Narragansett  Indian  school, 
maintained  for  the  members  of  the  tribe.  The  town  took  no 
action  to  provide  schools  or  schoolhouses  previous  to  1828. 
There  were  ten  private  schools  in  Charlestown  in  1819,  and 
about  the  same  number  in  1828. 

Coventry,  as  a  town,  made  no  provision  for  public  education 
previous  to  1828.  Tradition  places  the  establishment  of  three 
proprietors'  schools  in  the  town  soon  after  the  close  of  the 
Revolution.  There  were  eight  schoolhouses  in  Coventry  in 
1819  and  ten  in  1828.  The  Coventry  School  Society  was 
incorporated  in  1814,  and  the  Mill  Brook  School  Society  in  1828. 

Cranston  was  part  of  Providence  until  1754.  There  were 
six  schoolhouses  and  a  library  in  Cranston  in  1819,  and  eleven 
schoolhouses  in  1828,  although  schools  were  not  kept  regularly 
in  all  cases.  The  town  made  no  provision  for  public  education. 

Cumberland  School  Society  was  chartered  by  the  General 
Assembly  in  1795,  Cumberland  Academy  in  1800,  Cumberland 
Union  School  Society  in  1814,  and  Cumberland  Literary 
Society  in  1819.  There  were  nine  schoolhouses  in  the  town  in 
1819,  and  thirteen  in  1828.  The  Cumberland  schools  were 
described  in  1828  as  well  housed,  well  taught  and  kept  regularly. 
Cumberland  school  districts  were,  authorized  in  1838  to  acquire 
the  proprietors'  interests  by  purchase. 

EAST  GREENWICH,  EXETER,  FOSTER  AND 
GLOCESTER. 

East  Greenwich  inhabitants,  in  1774,  received  a  lottery  grant, 
wherewith  to  build  a  schoolhouse;  in  1780  the  grant  was  re- 
newed, the  amount  of  money  to  be  raised  increased,  and  the 
purpose  designated  as  the  building  of  two  schoolhouses.  In 
1804  still  another  lottery  was  granted  by  the  General  Assembly, 
to  build  a  schoolhouse  in  East  Greenwich,  near  Cory  pond. 
Kent  Academy  was  chartered  in  1802,  and  opened  in  1804. 


44  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

The  bell  from  Kent  County  Courthouse  was  given  to  Kent 
Academy  in  1806.  Frenchtown  Academy,  to  be  located  in  the 
western  section  of  the  town,  was  chartered  in  1803,  1806  and 
1820.  As  a  town  East  Greenwich  did  nothing  for  public  school 
support  prior  to  1828.  In  that  year  there  were  four  school- 
houses  in  the  town,  besides  Kent  Academy  and  a  private  school 
in  the  compact  village.  The  Charitable  Society  of  East  Green- 
wich was  established  in  1815  to  clothe  and  school  poor  children. 

Exeter  was  set  off  from  North  Kingstown  in  1742-3.  There 
were  two  schoolhouses  in  the  town  in  1819  and  three  in  1828,  in 
which  winter  schools  were  kept. 

Foster  was  taken  from  Scituate  in  1781.  There  were  eleven 
schoolhouses  and  a  library  in  the  town  in  1819,  and  fifteen 
schoolhouses  in  1828. 

Glocester  was  set  off  from  Providence  in  1730.  Burrillville 
was  taken  from  Glocester  in  1806.  There  were  twelve  school- 
houses  and  a  library  in  Glocester  in  1819,  and  eleven  school- 
houses,  in  which  fifteen  schools  were  kept,  in  1828. 

HOPK1NTON,  JAMESTOWN  AND  JOHNSTON. 

Hopkinton  was  taken  from  Westerly  in  1757.  In  1805  the 
General  Assembly  granted  a  lottery  to  build  a  meeting  house 
and  schoolhouse  in  Hopkinton.  There  were  six  schoolhouses  in 
Hopkinton  in  1819,  and  other  schools  were  kept,  but  not  regu- 
larly in  all  instances.  In  1828  the  number  of  schoolhouses  had 
increased  to  nine,  in  three  of  which  schools  were  kept  through 

the  year,  while  six  were  winter  schools. 

I 
Jamestown,  on  the  Island  of  Conanicut,  was  incorporated  in 

1678.  The  first  schoolhouse  of  which  there  is  positive  infor- 
mation was  erected  on  the  island  about  1802.  There  were  two 
schoolhouses  in  1819  and  three  in  1828,  when  the  population 
was  448. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  45 

Johnston,  the  west  end  of  Providence,  was  incorporated  in 
1759.  There  were  seven  schools  and  a  library  in  Johnston  in 
1819,  and  four  schoolhouses,  in  which  six  or  seven  schools  were 
kept  in  winter  and  three  in  summer,  in  1828. 

LITTLE  COMPTON  AND  MIDDLETOWN. 

Little  Compton  was  one  of  the  five  towns  transferred  to  Rhode 
Island  by  royal  decree  in  1747.  Of  early  schools  in  the  town 
no  records  have  been  found.  Seven  schools  were  kept  in  Little 
Compton  in  1819,  and  in  1824  there  were  eight  schoolhouses,  in 
which  schools  were  kept  regularly. 

Middletown  had  displayed  more  enterprise  than  most  Rhode 
Island  towns  in  maintaining  schools  under  town  management 
before  the  Revolution.  Unfortunately  the  ordinance  for 
dividing  the  town  into  school  districts,  adopted  in  1754,  trans- 
ferred control  and  responsibility  for  school  maintenance  to  the 
districts,  it  being  provided  "that  each  squadron  (district)  shall 
have  the  sole  power  of  managing  their  own  schoolhouses  and 
lands,  by  leasing  out  the  same,  and  employing  schoolmasters 
as  it  shall  be  most  agreeable  to  them."  'Nevertheless  the  town 
provided  a  "well  crotch  and  sweep  to  the  well  at  the  east 
schoolhouse"  in  1759,  and  in  1776  repaired  the  eastern  school- 
house  at  an  expense  of  $48.25,  which  was  paid  out  of  the  town 
treasury.  The  eastern  schoolhouse  was  destroyed  by  fire  in 
1786,  and  the  town  offered  a  reward  of  £30  "to  any  person  or 
persons  who  will  give  information  of  the  principal  or  accessory 
in  wilfully  setting  fire  to  the  east  schoolhouse."  The  east  school 
land  was  rented  in  1787  for  "six  bushels  of  good  Indian  corn," 
and  in  1789  it  was  rented  for  "thirteen  bushels  of  good  mer- 
chantable Indian  corn,  to  be  paid  and  delivered  into  the  treas- 
ury." Probably  corn  was  preferable,  as  legal-tender,  to  post- 
Revolutionary  paper  money.  In  1789  the  rents  of  the  east 
school  land  were  appropriated  to  the  use  of  schooling  poor 
children,  and  in  1790  the  beneficiaries  were  limited  to  poor 


46  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

children  in  the  east  end.  In  1792  it  was  voted  that  the  rents 
from  the  "eastermost"  school  land  "be  collected  and  put  on 
interest  in  order  to  be  employed  toward  building  a  schoolhouse." 
Although  the  town  records  did  not  mention  the  specific  cause, 
it  seems  likely  that  the  question  of  responsibility  for  rebuilding 
the  east  schoolhouse  aroused  a  controversy  that  has  left  a 
trace  upon  the  records  in  the  foregoing  and  subsequent  votes 
of  the  town.  The  districting  ordinance  of  1754  proved  to  be  a 
stumbling  block  for  those  who  favored  rebuilding  at  the  expense 
of  the  town  as  a  whole.  If  it  remained  in  effect,  the  inhabitants 
of  the  east  end  probably  must  rebuild  their  own  schoolhouse  with- 
out material  assistance  from  the  other  district.  In  May,  1789, 
the  district  ordinance  was  repealed,  although  it  was  still  provided 
that  "all  persons  who  send  children  to  the  west  school  shall 
have  the  full  power  of  chuseing  a  schoolmaster  to  keep  schoole 
in  said  house,  and  all  other  persons  who  have  no  children  to 
send  shall  be  excluded  from  any  vote  in  chuseing  said  schoole- 
master."  The  ordinance  was  broad  enough  to  exclude  resi- 
dents of  the  east  end,  which  probably  was  intended,  as  well  as 
bachelors  and  benedicts  who  had  no  children,  from  partici- 
pating in  the  choice  of  the  schoolmaster  for  the  west  end.  The 
next  month,  however,  west  end  interest  was  stronger  in  town 
meeting,  and  the  ordinance  of  1754  was  revived,  only  to  be 
repealed  again  later  in  the  year.  In  1790  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  "inspect  into  the  rights  of  the  town  to  the  west 
schoolehouse  and  land,  if  any  they  have."  The  committee's 
report  has  not  been  found.  Another  committee  was  appointed 
in  1807,  to  "see  how  the  east  and  west  school  land  stands,"  and 
it  reported:  "We  have  searched  the  proprietors'  records  and 
find  that  the  east  school  land  was  granted  for  the  benefit  of  the 
proprietors  in  that  part  of  the  town,  and  the  west  school  land 
for  the  benefit  of  the  proprietors  in  that  part  of  the  town,  but 
in  searching  the  town  meeting  book  of  records  we  find  by  the 
votes  of  the  freemen  in  several  town  meetings,  said  school  lands 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  47 

have  been  managed  by  the  town  in  many  ways."  From  1819 
to  1853  district  No.  1  controlled  the  school  land  in  its  district 
and  received  the  income.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  1856,  con- 
firmed the  right  of  the  district.*  In  1810  and  in  1819  land 
was  granted  to  two  companies  of  proprietors  to  erect  school- 
houses.  Thus  there  were  at  least  three  schoolhouses  in  Middle- 
town  in  1819,  although  five  schools  were  kept;  in  1828  there 
were  five  schoolhouses  in  the  town.  Middletown  claimed  tax 
remission  under  the  state  law  of  1800  on  account  of  its  free 
school,  presumably  the  west  end  school. 

NEWPORT. 

Newport  suffered  more  than  any  other  Rhode  Island  town 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  although  Bristol  was  bombarded 
by  the  British.  The  British  destroyed  Long  Wharf  in  Newport 
in  1779;  revival  of  the  commerce  that  had  made  Newport  one 
of  the  most  prosperous  seaports  on  the  Atlantic  coast  before  the 
war  awaited  its  rebuilding.  In  1795  the  General  Assembly 
named  36  petitioners,  citizens  of  Newport,  as  trustees  and 
granted  them  a  lottery  to  raise  $25,000  toward  rebuilding  Long 
Wharf  and  for  building  a  hotel,  upon  condition  that  all  profits 
arising  from  the  wharf  and  hotel  should  be  appropriated  to 
building  one  or  more  free  public  schools.f  The  lottery  yielded, 
it  is  estimated,  $12,000;  the  wharf  was  rebuilt  and  the  work  was 
completed  in  1800.  The  hotel  was  not  built. 

Under  date  of  May  16,  1795,  Simeon  Potter  of  Swanseaf 
wrote  to  two  members  of  the  board  of  trustees: 

*Gould  vs.  Whitman,  3  R.  I.  267. 

fSmall,  "Early  N.  E.  Schools,"  p.  210:  "Newport  had  a  lottery  from  which  a  wharf 
and  hotel  were  to  be  built,  the  proceeds  of  which  were  to  support  a  public  school.  The 
result  is  not  known."  Comment  seems  unnecessary. 

JSimeon  Potter  was  born  in  Bristol  about  1720.  Of  poor  parentage,  he  went  to  sea  as  an 
humble  seaman,  and  returned  to  Bristol  after  a  career  as  a  privateer  captain,  one  of  the 
richest  men  in  the  town  and  colony.  From  1752  to  1777  he  represented  Bristol  in  the 
General  Assembly.  He  commanded  a  boat  from  Bristol  which  joined  the  Gaspee  party 
on  June  10, 1772.  He  was  Major  General  of  Rhode  Island  troops  in  1776.  He  claimed 
residence  in  Swansea  after  1780,  it  has  been  said,  to  escape  taxation  in  Bristol;  but  he 
retained  his  membership  in  St.  Michael's  Church  in  Bristol  until  he  died  in  1806.  He  was 
buried  in  Bristol. 


48  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

"Gentlemen:  I  saw  in  the  Boston  Centinel  a  scheme  of  a 
lottery,  for  the  laudable  intention  of  rebuilding  Long  Wharf  in 
Newport,  the  building  of  a  hotel,  and,  more  especially,  estab- 
lishing a  free  school,  which  has  determined  me  to  make  a  free 
gift  of  my  estate  on  the  point  called  Easton's  Point,  which  came 
to  me  by  way  of  mortgage  for  a  debt  due  from  Hays  and  Pollock, 
if  you  will  accept  of  it  in  trust  to  support  a  free  school  forever, 
for  the  advantage  of  the  poor  children  of  every  denomination, 
and  to  be  under  the  same  regulations  as  you  desired  the  free 
school  should  be  that  you  design  to  erect.  If  you,  gentlemen, 
will  please  get  a  deed  wrote  agreeably  to  the  intentions  here 
manifested,  I  will  sign  and  acknowledge  the  same  and  send  it 
to  you  for  recording.  I  would  only  mention  that  if  the  situation 
is  agreeable  to  you,  the  house  and  garden  would  do  for  a  school- 
master, and  the  oil  house,  which  is  large,  might  be  fixed  up  for  a 
schoolhouse.  This  as  you  may  think  proper.  There  is  no 
person  here  that  understands  writing  such  a  deed,  or  I  would 
have  sent  it  to  you  completely  executed. 

"I  am,  gentlemen,  with  respect,  Your  humble  servant, 

"SIMEON  POTTER," 

The  gift  was  accepted.  The  deed  recited  the  terms  of  the 
trust  thus:  "Now  I,  the  said  Simeon  Potter,  mpved  by  the 
regard  I  have  for  the  good  people  of  the  said  town  of  Newport, 
and  by  the  afflictions  which  they  have  suffered  in  the  late  war, 
and  wishing  to  promote  their  rise  and  prosperity,  and  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children  of  the  present  and  succeeding  generations, 
do  hereby,  in  consideration  thereof,  give,  grant,"  etc. 

The  Potter 'property  stood  at  the  corner  of  Washington  and 
Marsh  streets  in  Newport.  The  house  was  rented  by  the 
trustees  and  the  first  income  was  applied  to  repairs.  The 
trustees,  in  1800,  tendered  the  use  of  the  property  "to  the  town 
for  a  schoolhouse,  on  condition  of  the  town  repairing  the  same 
and  paying  such  rent  as  may  be  agreed  upon,  provided  it  is 
appropriated  for  a  school,  conformably  to  the  act  of  the  Assem- 
bly for  establishing  free  schools,  and  that  it  be  called  the  Potter 
school."  But  Newport  took  no  action  to  provide  free  schools 
under  the  act  of  1800. 

In  August,  1814,  a  committee  of  the  trustees  was  authorized 
to  devise  a  plan  for  the  commencement  of  a  school.  The  com- 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  49 

mittee  recommended  renting  the  Potter  house  to  a  suitable 
person  to  keep  a  school  for  a  number  of  boys  belonging  to 
families  in  the  town  who  are  unable  to  educate  them,  and  that 
they  be  instructed  in  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic  necessary 
for  ordinary  business  and  navigation.  The  committee  found  a 
room  in  the  house,  15x40  feet,  with  two  fireplaces,  which  could 
be  fitted  up  to  accommodate  50  or  60  scholars,  and  that  Capt. 
Joseph  Finch  and  his  wife,  "who  occupy  the  chambers  keeping 
a  school,"  "will  undertake  to  instruct  20  or  30  children  in 
reading  and  find  the  necessary  firewood,  at  $1.80  each  per 
quarter."  The  record  sanctions  the  conclusion  that  the  house 
was  even  then  in  use  as  a  private  school.  The  committee  also 
advised  that  Job  Gibbs,  a  carpenter,  who  occupied  the  first 
floor  and  was  largely  in  arrears  for  rent,  be  employed  for  making 
the  necessary  repairs  for  the  accommodation  of  the  pupils, 
"on  enlarging  the  establishment  under  the  direction  of  an 
instructor  in  the  higher  branches."  A  committee  was  appointed 
to  carry  the  plan  into  effect,  and  a  school  was  opened  October 
10,  1814,  with  21  small  boys  as  scholars.  From  the  report  of 
the  school  committee  of  May  1,  1815,  it  appeared  that  Elizabeth 
Finch,  wife  of  Capt.  Finch,  was  the  teacher,  as  the  committee 
found  that  the  boys  "have  made  greater  progress  with  their 
learning  than  was  anticipated,  and  that  Mrs.  Finch,  with  the 
assistance  of  her  husband,  had  done  ample  justice  to  the  pupils." 
At  a  meeting  of  the  trustees  in  April,  1815,  the  committee  was 
authorized  to  enlarge  the  school  to  accommodate  40  pupils. 
The  September  gale  of  1815  prostrated  Newport  and  damaged 
Long  Wharf.  The  trustees  were  compelled,  in  1817,  to  reduce 
the  school  to  10  pupils.  The  schoolhouse  was  repaired  in  1823, 
and  school  committees  were  appointed  from  year  to  year.  The 
trustees  in  1827  employed  counsel  to  ascertain  their  rights  under 
the  will  of  Constant  Taber.  It  was  found  that  a  codicil  to  the 
will  had  revoked  a  legacy  of  30  shares  of  United  States  Bank 
stock.  Capt.  Finch  died  in  1829,  and  Mrs.  Finch  was  engaged 


50  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

to  conduct  a  school  for  small  children  of  both  sexes,  in  lieu  of 
payment  of  rent.  In  July  of  the  same  year  the  widow  Dennis 
rented  the  house  on  the  same  terms,  remaining  until  1832,  when 
the  Potter  school  was  discontinued.  The  Potter  estate  was 
sold  in  1834  for  $505,  and  the  proceeds  were  placed  in  a  savings 
bank.  Long  Wharf  was  leased  for  100  years,  in  1860,  to  the 
Newport  and  Fall  River  Railway  Company  at  an  annual  rental 
of  $1400.  The  trustees  had  in  the  savings  bank  $2293.38, 
accumulated  from  the  Potter  donation.  In  1863  a  new  two- 
story  brick  schoolhouse,  which  cost  $13,000,  was  built  by  the 
trustees  and  presented  to  the  city  of  Newport.  A  second 
schoolhouse  was  built  by  the  trustees  at  a  later  date,  and  the 
city  of  Newport  is  still  from  time  to  time  a  beneficiary  of  the 
trust. 

Fifty  years  after  the  destruction  of  the  central  town  school- 
house,  that  is  in  1824,  interest  in  public  education  revived 
sufficiently  in  Newport  to  make  the  question  of  providing  public 
schools  one  of  the  most  important  topics  for  discussion  in  town 
meeting.  In  1825  the  General  Assembly,  upon  petition,  au- 
thorized Newport  to  raise  a  tax  of  $800  "for  the  education  of 
the  white  children  of  the  town  who  are  not  otherwise  provided 
with  the  means  of  instruction."  A  lottery  granted  for  school 
support  was  not  taken  up  by  the  people  of  Newport.  The 
'town  made  its  first  annual  appropriation,  under  the  new  dis- 
pensation, in  1825.  To  the  annual  appropriations  in  1825  and 
1826  were  added  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  and  rent  of  school 
land;  and  the  building  of  a  schoolhouse,  "60  feet  long  and  36 
feet  wide,  of  brick  and  stone,  two  stories  high,"  was  undertaken 
at  a  cost  of  $3000.  Provision  was  also  made  for  the  accumula- 
tion of  a  school  fund  from  the  proceeds  of  sales  of  school  land 
under  earlier  grants,  and  $1500  was  added  to  the  fund  by  bequest 
of  Constant  Taber. 

In  March,  1827,  the  town  authorized  the  opening  of  a  school 
for  boys  in  the  upper  story.  A  school  on  the  Lancaster  or 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  51 

monitorial  plan  began  on  May  21,  1827.  The  school  was  in 
charge  of  a  school  committee,  which  had  power  to  appoint 
schoolmasters  and  assistants,  to  regulate  the  admission  and 
discharge  of  scholars,  to  provide  books,  stationery,  etc.,  and 
in  general  to  superintend  and  manage  the  school.  The  school 
was  not  an  absolutely  free  school.  It  was  provided: 

"  In  order  that  the  benefit  of  the  school  may  be  extended  not 
only  to  the  most  indigent  of  our  citizens,  but  to  those  also  whom 
industry  and  economy  place  above  want,  the  following  low 
rates  of  tuition  shall  be  established,  viz.:  For  the  alphabet, 
spelling  and  writing  on  slate,  25  cents  per  quarter.  Contin- 
uance of  ditto,  with  reading  and  arithmetical  tables,  50  cents 
per  quarter.  Continuance  of  the  last,  with  writing  on  paper, 
arithmetic  and  definitions,  $1.  The  preceding,  with  grammar, 
geography  and  the  use  of  maps  and  globes,  book-keeping,  etc., 
$2.  No  additional  charge  for  fuel,  books  or  stationery. 

"The  object  of  the  foregoing  scale  of  prices  for  tuition  is  to 
foster  and  encourage  the  praiseworthy  feeling  of  independence 
in  those  parents  who  wish  to  educate  their  children  at  their  own 
expense,  but  whose  limited  means  are  insufficient  to  pay  the 
customary  rates.  But  it  is  at  the  same  time  expressly  pro- 
vided that  no  child  shall  be  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  the 
school  merely  from  inability  to  pay  for  his  tuition." 

There  were  337  applicants  for  admission  to  the  school,  279 
pupils  were  admitted,  and  217  were  in  attendance  at  the  end  of 
the  first  year.  The  school  committee  found  that  the  tuition 
paid  was  insufficient  to  defray  the  expense  of  books,  slates,  etc., 
a  consideration  which  should,  perhaps,  entitle  this  school  to 
rank  as  a  free  school,  since  free  schools  generally  did  not  provide 
free  books  or  stationery  for  their  pupils.  In  Providence  pupils 
could  be  assessed  for  fuel  until  1833,  and  were  required  to 
furnish  their  books  and  ink  for  writing.  The  Newport  school 
committee  praised  the  Lancaster  system  as  the  best  available 
for  a  large  school.  The  instructor  received  $600  a  year. 

A  school  for  girls  on  a  similar  plan  was  opened  in  the  lower 
story  of  the  schoolhouse  in  1828.  It  is  estimated  that  there 
were  in  Newport  in  1828,  besides  the  public  schools  and  the 
Potter  school,  42  private  schools,  which  accommodated  1100 
pupils. 


52  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

NEW  SHOREHAM  AND  NORTH  KINGSTOWN. 

New  Shoreham  made  no  provision  for  public  schools  earlier 
than  1828.  In  that  year  there  was  one  schoolhouse  on  the 
island;  four  schools  were  kept  four  months  in  winter  and  six 
months  in  summer. 

North  Kingstown  elected  its  first  school  committee  in  1828. 
Of  schoolhouses  in  the  town  earlier  than  1800  no  record  has 
been  found.  The  General  Assembly  in  1806  granted  a  lottery 
to  build  a  schoolhouse  at  the  Four  Corners  in  North  Kingstown. 
In  that  year  a  schoolhouse,  24x26  feet,  was  built  by  Thomas 
Allen,  John  Wightman  and  Thomas  G.  Allen  at  Quidnesette. 
Tradition  says  that  it  was  furnished  with  a  pulpit  and  desk, 
and  that  it  was  used  for  meeting  and  school  purposes  until  1837. 
Another  schoolhouse  was  built  in  1808  by  William  Reynolds,  a 
factory  owner  ;  this,  according  to  the  American,  was  the  only 
schoolhouse  in  North  Kingstown  in  1828,  but  the  American 
probably  was  in  error  in  this  instance.  A  third  schoolhouse  was 
erected  near  Davisville  before  1810  by  Ezra  and  Jeffrey  Davis. 
The  Rhode  Island  Register  of  1819  declared  that  12  schools  were 
kept  in  North  Kingstown,  while  the  American  of  1828  placed 
the  number  at  six.  No  town  or  other  records  to  verify  either 
estimate  have  been  found.  The  General  Assembly  chartered 
Washington  Academy  at  Wickford  in  1799.  Nicholas  and  Ann 
Spink,  and  John  and  Hannah  Franklin  donated  four  acres  of 
land  for  a  site;  Samuel  Elam  presented  $100  cash,  and  the 
General  Assembly,  in  1803,  endowed  it  with  a  lottery.  The 
stockholders  subscribed  $2000.  The  academy  was  opened  in 
1802,  and  had  a  long,  though  somewhat  precarious  existence. 
It  was  sometimes  called  Elam  Academy,  by  which  name  it  was 
mentioned  in  the  American  in  1828. 

NORTH  PROVIDENCE  AND  PORTSMOUTH. 

North  Providence  was  set  off  from  Providence  in  1765.  The 
earliest  school  in  the  town  of  which  a  record  has  been  found  was 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  53 

opened  at  Pawtucket  in  1791  for  mill  children,  under  the 
patronage  of  Samuel  Slater,  founder  of  the  cotton  spinning 
industry  in  America.*  Samuel  Slater  himself  was  a  teacher  in  a 
secular  Sunday  School  for  mill  operatives.  What  was  known 
as  the  Red  Schoolhouse  was  erected  at  Pawtucket  in  1793;  it 
was  a  proprietors'  school  and  received  pupils  from  both  sides 
of  the  Blackstone  river,  which  at  that  time  marked  the  boundary 
line  at  Pawtucket  between  Rhode  Island  and  Massachusetts. 
The  Pawtucket  School  Society  was  chartered  in  1795,  and  the 
Pawtucket  Union  Academy  in  1801,  and  again  in  1805.  The 
academy,  when  built,  stood  on  what  is  now  Pleasant  street. 
At  the  western  end  of  the  town,  near  Centredale  and  the  Fruit 
Hill  section,  Nathan  Angell,  Olney  Angell,  Benjamin  Whipple 
and  Roger  Olney  built  a  schoolhouse  on  Smith  street  between 
1802  and  1805.  The  General  Assembly,  in  1808,  granted  a 
lottery  for  an  academy  in  North  Providence  on  the  Smithfield 
pike.  There  were  eight  schoolhouses  and  two  academies  in 
North  Providence  in  1819,  and  seven  schoolhouses,  an  academy 
and  four  other  schools  in  Pawtucket,  in  all  eleven  schools,  in 

1828. 

A 
Portsmouth  had  been  well  supplied  with  schools  before  the 

Revolution;  there  is  little  reason  to  believe  that  schools  were 
not  kept  regularly  in  the  town,  except  in  war  times.  There 
were  seven  schools  in  Portsmouth  in  1819,  and  four  school- 
houses,  accommodating  four  winter  and  one  or  two  summer 
schools,  in  1828. 

PROVIDENCE 

Rhode  Island  College  was  the  first  school  in  Providence  to 
resume  its  sessions  after  the  war.  Dr.  Manning  issued  a  call 
for  a  reopening  in  1780,  and  the  General  Assembly  ordered  the 
Quartermaster  to  remove  the  public  stores  from  the  Brick 

*The  first  American-made  spinning  jenny  was  constructed  in  Providence  in  1787;  the 
first  American  cotton  factory  was  started  by  Samuel  Slater  in  Pawtucket  in  1790.  Eli 
Whitney  invented  the  cotton  gin  in  1793. 


54  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

schoolhouse  and  put  it  in  order  for  use  by  the  students  of  the 
college,  in  July,  1780.  But  just  then  came  the  French,  who 
took  possession  of  University  Hall  as  a  hospital  and  barracks. 
In  1782,  after  the  departure  of  the  French,  upon  petition  of  the 
college,  the  state  repaired  University  Hall,  and  the  college 
reopened  in  October  of  that  year. 

Providence  furnishes  an  illustration  of  the  development  of 
voluntary  co-operation  into  involuntary  co-operation.  Interest 
in  schools  generally  revived  in  Providence  almost  immediately 
after  peace  was  restored.  There  were  three  schoolhouses  in  the 
town,  the  Brick  schoolhouse  on  Meeting  street,  owned  in  part 
by  the  town  and  in  part  by  a  company  of  proprietors,  and 
Whipple  Hall  and  the  school  west  of  the  river,  both  proprietors' 
schools.  Early  in  1785  a  committee  appointed  to  draw  up  a 
plan  for  school  government  reported,  in  words  which  recognize 
the  public  need  and  state  the  logical  conclusion: 

"They  have  endeavored  to  suggest  some  general  outlines  for 
the  regulation  of  schools,  as  they  are  now  supported  by  in- 
dividuals, but  are  of  the  opinion  that  no  effectual  method  can 
be  devised  for  the  encouragement  of  learning  and  the  general 
diffusion  of  knowledge  and  virtue  among  all  classes  of  children 
and  youth,  ufitil  the  town  shall  think  proper  to  take  a  matter 
of  so  much  importance  into  their  own  hands,  and  provide  and 
support  a  sufficient  number  of  judicious  persons  for  that 
purpose." 

In  town  meeting  June  29,  1785,  a  school  committee  was 
appointed  "to  take  the  government  of  the  town  schoolhouse 
under  their  direction,  and  to  appoint  proper  masters,  and  to  give 
their  direction  for  the  government  of  the  schools,"  with  power 
also  to  "take  charge  of  such  other  schoolhouses  in  town  as  the 
proprietors  may  think  proper  to  resign  into  the  care  of  the 
town,  and  also  of  such  funds  as  may  be  hereafter  provided  by 
the  town  for  the  support  of  schools,"  and  to  negotiate  with 
the  proprietors  for  a  surrender  of  their  schools  into  the  charge 
of  the  town  school  committee.  The  purpose  of  combining 
existing  agencies  under  public  control  is  clearly  indicated. 


BEGINNINGS    OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  55 

Negotiations  with  the  proprietors  of  Whipple  Hall  and  of  the 
upper  floor  of  the  Brick  schoolhouse  on  Meeting  street  resulted 
in  an  agreement  satisfactory  to  the  school  committee.  The 
town  appropriated  for  school  support  the  money  to  be  recovered 
from  the  United  States  for  war  damage  to  the  Brick  schoolhouse, 
the  rents  of  the  Market  house  cellar  and  stalls,  and  wharfage 
on  the  Market  house  lot  The  Rev.  Enos  Hitchcock,  a  member 
of  the  school  committee,  delivered  an  eloquent  "Discourse  on 
Education"  in  the  First  Congregational  Church  on  November 
16,  1785,  which  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form  by  Bennett 
Wheeler  and  had  a  wide  circulation.*  The  school  committee 
endeavored  zealously  to  improve  the  schools  committed  to  its 
care.  A  report  of  a  meeting  of  this  school  committee  held  on 
on  January  16,  1786,  was  printed  as  a  broadside  by  John 
Carter. f  The  committee  examined  and  approved  a  "method 
of  teaching  the  rudiments  of  arithmetic,"  and  recommended  it 
to  the  schoolmasters.  The  discussion  of  content  and  method 
was  thorough,  and  the  committee  report  might  serve  as  an 
excellent  syllabus.  While  the  treatment  of  arithmetic  advised 
was  not  modern,  the  report  insisted  upon  rational  methods. 
The  schoolmaster  was  advised  to  "illustrate  all  you  say  by 
easy  and  familiar  examples,  taking  care  to  make  yourself  per- 
fectly intelligible,  not  merely  contenting  youiself  with  having 
explained  what  you  teach  so  that  an  expert  mathematician 
shall  be  able  to  comprehend  your  meaning,  but  so  that  the 
child  to  whom  you  speak  may  understand  you." 

President  Manning's  Plan. — Almost  six  years  later,  June  6, 
1791,  a  petition  for  the  appointment  of  a  sufficient  number  of 
schoolmasters  to  instruct  all  the  children  in  the  town  at  the 
public  expense  was  referred  to  the  school  committee  with  direc- 
tion to  report  at  an  adjournment  of  the  meeting  to  June  13. 
The  committee  being  unable  to  report,  a  second  adjournment 

*One  of  the  pamphlets  is  in  the  Rider  collection,  Brown  University. 
tA  fac-simile  is  in  the  John  Carter  Brown  Library,  Brown  University. 


56  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

was  taken  to  August  1, 1791,  when  a  report  written  by  President 
Manning  of  Rhode  Island  College,  chairman  of  the  school 
committee,  who  had  died  suddenly  one  week  before  the  meet- 
ing, was  presented.  The  committee  recommended  the  pur- 
chase of  the  proprietors'  interests  in  the  Brick  schoolhouse  and 
Whipple  Hall,  and  the  erection  of  two  new  schoolhouses,  one 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  and  the  other  at  the  lower  end 
of  the  east  side.  A  master  and  assistants  were  to  be  provided 
for  each  school,  as  necessary,  to  provide  for  the  attendance 
estimated  by  the  committee  on  the  basis  of  an  enumeration 
which  placed  the  number  of  white  males  under  16  years  of  age 
in  Providence  in  1790  at  1256.  The  committee  asked  liberty 
to  resign  and  recommended  that  the  freemen  choose  a  school 
committee  annually  to  manage  the  schools.  Inasmuch  as  the 
Society  of  Friends  had  a  convenient  schoolroom  of  their  own 
and  chose  to  educate  their  children  under  the  tuition  of  their 
own  members,  the  committee  recommended  that  the  town  pay 
to  the  Society  of  Friends  a  share  of  the  public  school  money 
based  on  the  proportion  which  the  scholars  in  the  school  of  the 
Friends  bore  to  the  whole  number  educated  out  of  the  town's 
fund,  the  school  committee  having  the  right  of  inspection  and 
advice.  The  report  was  adopted  by  the  town  meeting,  except 
as  to  the  resignation  of  the  school  committee,  which  was  con- 
'tinued  in  office  without  change  The  town  council  failed, 
however,  to  carry  into  effect  the  vote  of  the  town  meeting. 
Writing  in  1876,*  Rev.  E.  M.  Stone  attributed  the  failure  of 
this  plan  to  vigorous  opposition  to  the  provision  for  public  aid 
to  a  sectarian  or  parochial  school;  but  his  conclusion  seems 
scarcely  warranted  by  the  facts.  The  plan  was  endorsed  in 
town  meeting  in  1791,  and  essentially  the  same  plan  was  ap- 

*Stone  was  writing  contemporaneously  with  a  legislative  investigation  of  the  subject  of 
tax  exemption  affecting  parochial  schools.  One  who  reads  his  discussion  of  the  movement 
of  1791,  with  full  knowledge  of  the  factors  affecting  public  opinion  in  1875-6,  readily  can 
understand  that  the  reverend  gentleman's  opinion  might  be  influenced  and  his  paragraph 
emphasized  by  his  own  view  of  the  merits  of  the  controversy  of  1875-6.  For  Stone's 
comment  see  StockwelFs  History  of  Public  Education  in  Rhode  Island.  For  a  record  of 
the  tax  exemption  controversy,  see  Chapter  VII,  School  Finance. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  57 

t 

proved  in  town  meeting  in  1795,  when  it  again  failed  to  function. 
The  fundamental  error  in  the  plan  was  the  omission  of  pro- 
vision for  an  appropriation,  or  for  a  tax  for  school  purposes,  or 
some  other  provision  for  adequate  support  of  schools.  The 
votes  in  town  meeting  had  the  weight  of  resolutions  addressed 
to  the  town  council  rather  than  ordinances. 

The  Brick  schoolhouse  was  repaired  in  1794  by  agreement 
with  the  proprietors.  There  were,  according  to  Chace's  map, 
five  schoolhouses  in  the  town  of  Providence  in  1798:  The 
Brick  schoolhouse,  on  Meeting  street,  near  the  Friends'  Meet- 
ing House;  Whipple  Hall,  near  the  northerly  end  of  Benefit 
street;  Neighbors'  school,  on  the  southerly  side  of  George 
street,  close  to  what  is  now  Magee  street;  Neighbors'  school, 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  at  the  corner  of  what  are  no\\ 
Mathewson  and  Chapel  streets;  and  John  Dexter's,  or  Sheldon's 
school,  on  the  lowei  east  side,  near  Benefit  street. 

Until  almost  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  agitation  for 
public  education  in  Providence  was  largely  the  work  of  the 
clergy,  the  learned  professions,  the  wealthy,  and  representatives 
of  the  rising  commercial  interest  and  of  the  college.  Witness  the 
school  committee  of  1785:  Rev.  President  Manning,  Rev. 
Enos  Hitchcock,  Rev.  Joseph  Snow,  Rev.  Thomas  Fitch  Oliver, 
Hon.  Jabez  Bowen,  Esq.,  Dr.  Thomas  Truman,  Nicholas  Brown, 
Esq.,  John  Innis  Clarke,  Esq.,  and  Moses  Brown.  Of  this 
number  and  associated  with  them  were  many  men  who  had 
become  members  of  the  existing  school  societies.  Moses  Brown 
lamented,  in  1768,  the  apathy,  indifference  and  opposition  of 
citizens  of  the  poorer  classes,  which  defeated  the  movement  for 
free  schools  in  that  year.  Success  ultimately  crowned  the 
efforts  of  a  combination  of  the  wealthy  and  educated  classes 
with  the  more  enterprising  mechanics  of  the  town.  A  man 
and  an  organization  supplied  the  stimulus.  The  successful 
movement  was  largely  created  by  the  man;  the  organization 
became  his  accessory  before  the  fact,  and  the  wealthy  and 
professional  classes  joined  freely  in  promoting  his  enterprise. 


58  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

I 

Enter  John  Rowland. — Home  from  the  war  marched  a  soldier 
boy.  Not  yet  20  years  old,  he  had  been  with  Washington  at 
Trenton.  Ragged,  but  probably  not  unkempt — his  vocation 
forbade  that;  almost  baiefooted,  weary  and  hungry,  he  trudged 
along  over  the  country  roads  from  New  York,  through  Con- 
necticut; for  the  Continental  Congress  was  in  dire  straits  for 
money  and  could  not  furnish  transportation  for  soldiers  dis- 
charged from  the  service.  His  nanative  of  his  journey  home 
arouses  patriotism,  makes  the  throat  gulp,  grips  the  heart  and 
sends  thrills  of  emotion  through  every  muscle  and  fibre.  Lex- 
ington, Bunker  Hill,  Trenton,  Saratoga  and  Yorktown,  brilliant 
as  they  were,  yield  place  to  Valley  Forge  in  glory.  The  sac- 
rifices of  the  American  patriots  are  more  inspiring  than  their 
military  successes. 

The  soldier  boy  was  John  Howland,  a  barber.  Bom  in 
Newport  in  1757,  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  hair-dresser  in  Provi- 
dence when  13  years  of  age.  He  joined  the  Continental  army 
when  18.  His  shop  in  Providence  became,  after  the  war,  a 
resort  for  the  leading  townsmen;  but  he  retained  always  his 
associations  with  the  mechanics  and  more  humble  tradesmen. 
He  rose  to  be  Town  Treasurer,  member  of  the  school  commit- 
tee for  a  generation,  President  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical 
Society,  President  and  Treasurer  of  the  Providence  Institution 
for  Savings.  He  led  the  movement  which  established  free 
public  schools  in  Providence,  and  he  lived  to  see  the  system 
spread  throughout  the  state.  This  was  the  man. 

The  organization  was  the  Providence  Association  of  Me- 
chanics and  Manufacturers,  founded  February  27,  1789,  "for 
the  promotion  of  home  manufactures,  the  cementing  of  the 
mechanic  industry  and  for  raising  a  fund  to  support  the  dis- 
tressed." John  Howland  became  an  active  member  of  the 
association  and  an  earnest  advocate  of  free  schools.  He  urged 
upon  the  association  the  importance  of  public  education  as  a 
means  of  improving  their  condition;  he  was  a  frequent  con- 


BEGINNINGS    OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  59 

tributor  to  the  public  press  as  well,  always  advocating  schools 
free  for  everybody.  In  1798  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  a 
committee  of  the  association  to  "inquire  into  the  most  desirable 
method  for  the  establishment  of  free  schools."  He  wrote  for  the 
association  a  petition  for  free  schools,  which  was  presented  to 
the  General  Assembly  in  1799.  He  drafted  the  resolutions 
through  which  the  town  of  Providence,  in  an  advisory  referen- 
dum, instructed  its  representatives  in  the  General  Assembly  to 
support  the  petition.  He  rallied  influential  members  of  the 
General  Assembly  to  his  cause,  and  secured  the  enactment  of  a 
state  free  school  law  in  1800. 

Providence  Acts. — The  freemen  of  Providence,  in  town  meet- 
ing, on  April  16,  1800,  appointed  James  Burrill,  Jr.,  John  Corlis, 
Richard  Jackson,  Jr.,  John  Carlile,  Joel  Metcalf,  William 
Richmond  and  John  Howland  a  committee  to  draw  up  and 
report  a  plan  for  carrying  the  act  of  1800  into  effect.  The  com- 
mittee reported  the  four-schoolhouse  plan,  familiar  to  the  town 
of  Providence  since  1767 — Whipple  Hall  and  the  Brick  school- 
house  to  be  purchased,  and  two  new  schoolhouses  to  be  built, 
one  on  the  west  side  of  the  rrver,  and  the  other  on  the  lower 
east  side.  The  committee  also  advised  the  appointment  of  four 
schoolmasters,  at  an  annual  salary  of  $500  each,  and  so  many 
assistants  as  should  be  found  necessary;  that  the  town  be  one 
district  for  school  management,  and  that  a  tax  of  $4000  be 
imposed,  to  be  appropriated  exclusively  to  the  erection  and 
support  of  free  schools.  An  attempt  to  defeat  the  plan  by 
presenting  an  amendment  raising  the  amount  of  the  tax  to 
$6000,  was  frustrated  by  Rowland's  acceptance  of  the  amend- 
ment and  the  speedy  taking  of  a  vote  Otherwise  than  that  the 
amount  of  the  appropriation  was  increased,  the  plan  was 
adopted  as  presented,  and  the  town  council  prepared  to  carry 
it  into  execution  in  compliance  with  the  act  of  the  General 
Assembly. 

Two  new  schoolhouses,  on  what  are  now  Transit  street  and 
Claverick  street,  were  ordered  built  by  ordinance  of  May  15, 


60  PUBLIC   EDCUATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

1800,  "like  the  new  schoolhouse  on  George  street."  The 
dimensions  were  50x30  feet,  two  stories  high,  but  only  the  lower 
story  was  to  be  finished.  Sixty  double  desks  for  each  school- 
house  weie  ordered.  Subsequently  it  was  voted  to  construct 
the  schoolhouses  of  brick,  at  a  cost  of  $2097  each.  A  fifth 
schoolhouse,  of  stone,  one  story  high,  was  elected  in  1819,  at 
Summer  and  Pond  streets. 

The  town  council  called  the  town  school  committee  into 
conference  October  13,  1800,  "for  the  purpose  of  advising  and 
consulting  with  the  council  relative  to  said  public  schools." 
A  sub-committee,  consisting  of  Rev.  Enos  Hitchcock,  President 
Maxcy  of  Rhode  Island  College,  Joseph  Jenckes  and  John 
Rowland,  was  appointed  to  draft  rules  and  regulations  for  the 
discipline  and  government  of  the  schools,  but  this  work  fell 
ultimately  to  John  Rowland. 

The  legulations  provided  fofr  keeping  school  all  the  year 
around,  six  hours  a  day  from  October  to  April,  and  six  and  one- 
half  hours  a  day  from  April  to  October.  Scholars  were  "  excused 
from  attending  on  Saturdays,  on  Christmas  Day,  on  the  Fourth 
of  July,  on  public  fasts  and  thanksgivings,  on  Tuesday,  Wed- 
nesday and  Thursday  of  Commencement  week,  on  the  day 
succeeding  each  quarterly  visitation,  on  the  last  Monday  in 
April,  and  on  the  regimental  training  day  in  October."  The 
principal  part  of  the  instruction  was  to  "consist  in  teaching 
spelling,  accenting  and  reading  in  both  prose  and  verse  with 
propriety  and  accuracy,  and  a  general  knowledge  of  English 
grammar  and  composition;  also  in  writing  a  good  hand  accord- 
ing to  the  most  approved  rules,  and  arithmetic  through  all  the 
previous  rules,  and  vulgar  and  decimal  fractions,  including  tret 
and  tare,  fellowship,  exchange,  interest,  etc."  The  scholars 
were  to  be  graded,  but  boys  and  girls  were  not  to  be  heard  in  the 
same  class.  The  town  was  districted,  but  only  for  the  purpose 
of  determining  the  school  that  children  in  various  parts  of  the 
town  should  attend. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  61 

Additional  rules  and  regulations,  adopted  October  24,  1800, 
display  an  enlightenment  in  matters  of  school  discipline  re- 
markable for  the  period.  These  rules  "recommended  to  the 
schoolmasters  that,  as  far  as  practicable,  they  exclude  corporal 
punishment  from  the  schools,  and  in  particular  that -they  never 
inflict  it  on  females;  that  they  inculcate  upon  the  scholars  the 
propriety  of  good  behavior  during  their  absence  from  school; 
that  they  consider  themselves  in  the  place  of  parents  to  the 
children  under  their  care,  and  endeavor  to  convince  them  by 
their  treatment,  that  they  feel  a  parental  affection  for  them; 
that  they  never  make  dismissal  from  school  at  an  earlier  hour 
than  usual  a  reward  for  attention  or  diligence,  but  endeavor  to 
lead  the  children  to  consider  being  at  school  a  privilege,  and 
dismissal  from  it  as  a  punishment;  that  they  never  authorize 
one  scholar  to  inflict  any  corporal  punishment  on  another  ;* 
that  they  endeavor  to  impress  the  minds  of  their  pupils  with 
a  sense  of  the  being  and  providence  of  God,  and  the  obligation 
they  are  under  to  love  and  reverence  Him,  their  duty  to  their 
parents  and  masters,  the  beauty  and  excellence  of  truth,  justice 
and  mutual  love,  tenderness  to  brute  creatures,  the  happy 
tendency  of  self-government  and  obedience  to  the  dictates  of 
reason  and  religion,  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  as  a  sacred 
institution;  the  duty  which  they  owe  to  their  country,  and  the 
necessity  of  strict  obedience  to  its  laws;  and  that  they  caution 
them  against  the  prevailing  vices." 

Free  Schools  Opened. — The  schools  were  opened  October  27, 
1800,  with  988  pupils,  180  at  Whipple  Hall,  230  at  the  Brick 
schoolhouse,  240  at  the  Transit  street  school,  and  338  at  Clav- 
erick  street.  After  November  1,  1800,  five  ushers,  at  $200  per 
year,  were  appointed,  two  for  the  west  side  school,  and  one  each 
for  the  other  schools.  The  salaries  of  ushers  were  raised  to  $250 
each  in  1818.  On  March  27,  1801,  Henrietta  Downer  and  her 

*A  practice  of  the  period. 


62  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

sister  were  permitted  to  improve  the  upper  story  of  the  Transit 
street  schoolhouse  for  a  school  for  small  children,  "provided 
that  they  are  at  the  expense  of  the  glass  that  may  be  broken  in 
consequence  thereof."  Lucilla  Downer  received  permission  to 
keep  a  summer  school  in  the  same  building  in  1804,  on  the  same 
condition. 

Ink  was  ordered  supplied  at  the  expense  of  the  town  in  1800, 
but  in  1803  the  order  was  countermanded,  and  thereafter 
scholars  must  provide  their  own  ink,  or  pay  the  master  for  it 
if  supplied  in  school.  In  February,  1804,  the  town  council 
which  was  the  body  actually  in  control  of  the  schools,  the  school 
committee  having  merely  visitorial  and  advisory  powers,  voted : 
"Whereas  many  inconveniences  arise  in  the  public  schools  by 
reason  that  many  of  the  scholars  attend  therein  without  having 
the  necessary  books:  Decreed,  therefore,  that  the  several 
masters  receive  no  scholars  into  the  same  unless  they  are 
severally  furnished  with  such  books  as  are  studied  in  the  several 
classes  to  which  such  scholar  belongs;  and  furthermore,  that 
all  such  scholars  whose  parents  or  guardians  may  not  be  able  to 
furnish  them  with  the  necessary  books  as  aforesaid,  the  parents 
or  guardians  of  such  children  are  requested  to  report  the  same 
to  this  council,  and  the  kind  and  number  of  books  wanted." 
The  clerk  of  the  council  was  ordered,  on  February  22,  1804,  to 
purchase  "  half  a  dozen  of  Testaments,  half  a  dozen  English 
readers  and  half  a  dozen  Alden's  Spelling  Books,  1st  part,  for 
the  use  of  such  scholars  at  the  public  schools  whose  parents  or 
guardians  are  not  sufficiently  able  to  provide  their  children  with 
the  same."  In  1818  John  Dexter,  schoolmaster,  was  authorized 
to  procure  books  for  his  indigent  scholars.  The  textbook 
question  was  troublesome  and  continued  to  be  so;  the  council 
dealt  with  it  only  as  occasion  required.  Scholars  were  taxed 
for  fuel,  the  task  of  collecting  this  assessment  proving  irksome 
for  schoolmasters.  On  February  28,  1804,  the  scholars  in  the 
west  side  schoolhouse,  where  two  schools  were  kept,  were 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  63 

ordered  taxed  "for  wood  consumed  in  the  same  and  for  re- 
placing of  all  windows  that  may  be  broken."  The  council 
found  it  inexpedient  to  attempt  to  divide  the  cost  of  fuel  be- 
twixt the  two  schoolrooms,  or  to  investigate  and  determine 
responsibility  for  every  pane  of  glass  broken.  Such  were  the 
taxes  assessed  on  scholars  in  free  schools;  only  tuition  was 
free. 

The  town  council  continued  to  be  the  controlling  adminis- 
trative body  until  1827.  No  existing  record  has  been  found  of  a 
meeting  of  the  school  committee  as  a  distinct  body  earlier  than 
October  14,  1813,  when  sub-committees  in  charge  of  the  several 
schools,  and  a  committee  on  rules  and  regulations  were  ap- 
pointed. The  quarterly  visitation  required  by  the  rules  and 
regulations  of  1800  was  made  by  the  town  council  and  school 
committee  jointly.  In  October,  1816,  the  town  council  and 
school  committee  voted  to  place  the  schools  in  the  interim 
between  quarterly  visitations  under  the  supervision  of  clergy- 
men, one  being  named  for  each  school  building.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  professional  supervision  in  Providence;  it  de- 
veloped in  1839,  into  the  appointment  of  the  first  superintendent 
of  schools  in  America.  The  inhabitants  of  the  west  side  district 
having  protested,  in  1821,  against  the  appointment  of  a  school- 
master, the  town  council  resolved  that  the  school  committee's 
participation  in  the  appointment  was  illegal,  and  thereupon 
itself  chose  another  schoolmaster.  The  incident  was  significant, 
as  it  clearly  indicated  the  relations  of  school  committee  and 
council,  and  the  custodian  of  the  power  to  control.  The  free- 
men in  1827  surrendered  to  the  council  the  right  to  elect  the 
school  committee,  and  the  council  elected  a  committee  of  36 
members,  headed  by  President  Wayland  of  Brown  University. 
This  committee  immediately  assumed  actual  control  of  the 
schools.  The  long-standing  controversy  between  council  and 
school  committee  opened  at  a  later  date;  the  details  of  the 
struggle  are  told  in  the  chapter  on  "School  Administration." 


64  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

"A  committee  for  the  purpose  of  examining  into  the  qualifi- 
cations of  candidates  for  preceptorships  of  the  public  schools" 
was  appointed  by  the  town  council  in  April,  1813.  The  privi- 
lege of  selecting  ushers,  sometimes  exercised  by  the  school- 
masters, was  curtailed  in  1815  by  a  resolution  "that  in  future 
no  person  be  employed  as  usher  in  any  of  the  public  schools  in 
this  town  except  they  have  undergone  a  previous  examination 
of  the  sub-committee  of  said  respective  school,  and  such  com- 
mittee's approbation  obtained;  and  that  in  future  no  person 
shall  presume  to  act  as  an  usher  in  any  of  the  public  schools  in 
this  town  without  first  having  been  presented  by  the  perceptor 
and  appointed  by  this  council,  and  that  no  person  acting  as 
usher  in  any  of  the  public  schools,  without  being  so  presented 
and  appointed,  shall  be  entitled  to  pay  for  his  services."  Thus 
the  council  assumed  the  appointive  power  and  the  power  to 
determine  qualifications. 

In  1819  the  council  received  and  ordered  a  hearing  on  a 
petition  praying  for  the  dismissal  of  the  master  of  the  west  side 
school.  The  petitioners  were  "willing  to  allow"  that  "the 
preceptor  is  a  gentleman  of  strict  and  upright  moral  principles, 
and  that  he  labors  in  the  duties  of  his  station  with  the  best  of 
motives;  yet  they  are  sorry  to  say  the  success  of  his  labors  has 
not  been  commensurate  with  the  wishes  and  reasonable  ex- 
pectations of  the  parents  and  guardians  of  his  scholars."  The 
alleged  failure  to  succeed,  in  the  opinion  of  the  petitioners,  was 
caused  by,  "First,  a  deficiency  in  literary  attainments;  and, 
second,  a  deficiency  of  wholesome  and  vigorous  government." 
The  master  was,  in  the  opinion  of  the  petitioners,  "and  (what 
is  of  itself  ruinous  to  the  school),  in  the  opinion  of  the  older 
scholars,  very  ignorant  of  geography,  giammar  and  arithme- 
tick."  Curiously  enough,  this  was  the  same  schoolmaster  who 
in  1820  reported  that  he  had  found  no  current  textbook  in 
grammar  satisfactory,  and  that  he  had  distributed  to  his  pupils 
a  grammar  of  his  own  composition.  The  petitioners  also  com- 


BEGINNINGS    OP   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  65 

plained  that  "the  government  of  the  school  is  deficient.  .  .  . 
The  government  of  a  numerous  school  is  a  task  of  difficulty. 
It  should  be  maintained  by  a  systematick  and  steady  per- 
severance, which  will  render  severe  examples  unnecessary." 
Friends  of  the  schoolmaster  presented  a  counter-petition  pray- 
ing for  his  retention,  and  the  council  probably  decided  to  allow 
it,  though  there  is  no  record  of  a  vote.  A  second  petition  by 
the  opponents  of  the  schoolmaster  was  presented  to  the  council 
January  27,  1820,  which  then  and  there  voted  "that  the  peti- 
tioners have  liberty  to  withdraw  the  said  petitions."  Still 
another  complaint  against  the  same  master  was  dismissed  in 
1821,  but  the  master  then  gave  notice  of  his  resignation.  The 
council  barkened  to  the  demands  of  the  inhabitants  of  one  of 
the  districts  in  the  instance  already  related  as  occurring  in  1821, 
when  an  appointment  by  the  council  and  school  committee 
jointly  was  revoked. 

The  textbooks  adopted  for  the  schools  in  1800  were  Alden's 
Spelling  Book,  first  and  second  parts;  the  Young  Ladies' 
Accidence,  a  grammar,  by  Caleb  Bingham;  the  American 
Preceptor,  Morse's  Geography  Abridged,  the  Holy  Bible,  and 
an  arithmetic  to  be  agreed  upon  by  the  masters.  Daboll's 
Arithmetic  was  in  general  use  in  1820.  A  committee  on  rules 
and  regulations,  in  1820,  requested  schoolmasters  to  report 
their  methods  of  conducting  schools,  school  programmes,  text- 
books used,  and  suggestions  for  improving  the  schools.  The 
masters'  reports  showed  a  variation  in  curricula,  school  pro- 
grammes and  even  in  textbooks.  One  master  recommended 
uniform  textbooks;  one,  that  all  pupils  be  required  to  have 
books;  one,  that  the  fuel  tax  be  abolished.  The  emphasis 
placed  upon  reading,  writing,  arithmetic  and  spelling  appeared 
in  every  report  so  clearly  that  there  is  no  mistaking  the  principal 
aim  of  the  early  public  schools.  The  committee  selected  a  list 
of  textbooks  to  be  used,  as  follows:  Alden's  Spelling  Book, 
first  and  second  parts;  New  Testament,  American  Preceptor, 


66  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

Murray's  Sequel  to  the  English  Reader,  Murray's  Abridge- 
ment of  English  Grammar  and  Daboll's  Arithmetic.  As  a 
standard  for  pronunciation  John  Walker's  Critical  Pronouncing 
Dictionary  was  adopted.  The  teaching  of  composition  was 
excluded,  but  punctuation  and  the  "  latest  letters"  were  added 
to  the  uniform  curriculum.  Geography  was  dropped,  but  was 
restored  in  1822.  The  committee  condemned  the  introduction 
of  new  studies,  thus:  "The  committee  are  convinced  that 
much  evil  has  resulted  to  the  schools  from  the  introduction  of 
too  many  branches  of  instruction,  but  more  particularly  those 
which  are  termed  the  higher  branches.  These  can  be  taught 
effectually  only  by  means  of  a  well-digested  and  an  increased 
expensive  system  of  instruction,  requiring  a  more  constant  and 
exclusive  attention  of  preceptor  and  scholar  than  is  consistent 
with  the  original  designs  of  our  public  schools."  There  was 
sound  common  sense  in  the  committee's  comment,  so  far  as  it 
was  a  criticism  of  the  prevailing  system  of  instruction.  No 
schoolmaster  could  do  justice  to  an  extended  curriculum,  or 
even  to  a  very  limited  curriculum,  while  the  number  of  pupils 
under  his  charge  averaged  close  to  100,  allowing  one  master  and 
one  usher  for  200  pupils.  That  was  the  "original  design"  and 
the  surviving,  prevailing  notion  of  the  public  school  of  the 
period.  President  Francis  Wayland,  as  chairman  of  the  school 
committee  of  1828,  recommended  introduction  of  the  monitorial 
system  as  the  most  practicable  method  of  instructing  classes 
which  must  continue  to  number  from  100  to  150  pupils.  But 
the  time  was  to  come  when  the  people  would  demand  and 
support  a  better  type  of  school,  in  which  there  would  be  ample 
opportunity  for  instruction  in  the  higher  branches.  In  justice 
to  President  Wayland  it  should  be  noted  here  that  he  recom- 
mended the  establishment  of  a  high  school  in  Providence  in  1828. 
The  first  public  school  under  a  woman  teacher  was  opened  in 
April,  1827,  on  the  west  side,  with  Miss  Carr  in  charge.  It  was 
for  children  from  five  to  eight  years  of  age.  Previously  six 


BEGINNINGS    OF    A    STATE    SYSTEM. 


67 


years  had  been  the  minimum  age  for  admission  to  the  public 
schools. 

Recapitulation. — Recapitulating  briefly,  the  free  public  schools 
in  Providence  were  housed  in  substantial  buildings  owned  by 
the  town,  which  also  furnished  free  instruction.  The  total  cost 
for  free  instruction  (after  1818)  was  $3750  annually,  for  five 
schoolmasters  and  five  ushers.  Scholars  were  taxed  for  fuel 
and  ink,  and  must  furnish  their  own  books  and  supplies,  except 
when  unable  to  do  so;  the  town  was  parsimonious  in  providing 
free  textbooks  for  poor  children.  Schools  were  kept  the  year 
around,  five  days  a  week,  six  hours  a  day  Teachers  were 
handicapped  by  large  classes;  the  monitorial  system  was  not  in 
vogue.  Instruction  as  a  rule  was  confined  to  reading,  writing, 
spelling,  arithmetic  and  grammar.  The  schools  were  admin- 
istered by  the  town  council. 

Wanting  standards  and  accurate  measurements,  it  is  im- 
possible to  estimate  the  efficiency  of r the  free  public  schools  of 
Providence  in  the  first  quarter-centuiy.  A  fact  that  indicates 
a  popular  estimate  unfavorable  to  the  schools  was  the  absence 
of  growth  in  attendance  commensurate  with  the  increase  in 
population.  Three  attendance  reports  are  condensed  in  the 
following  table : 


1800. 

JAI 

*.  27,  \i 

520. 

Oc 

r.  25,  U 

!20. 

Total. 

Girls. 

Boys. 

Total. 

Girls. 

Boys. 

Total. 

First  District  

180 

80 

80 

160 

62 

59 

121 

Second  District  .... 

230 

102 

117 

219 

69 

97 

166 

Third  District  

240 

60 

112 

172 

36 

108 

144 

Fourth  District  

338 

62 

104 

166 

82 

111 

193 

Fifth  District  

88 

128 

216 

60 

76 

.   136 

Totals  

988 

392 

541 

933 

309 

451 

760 

The  table  shows  a  better  attendance  record  in  winter  than  in 
summer,  the  dates  being  quarterly  visitation  days  at  the  end  of 


68  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

quarters.  Boys  exceeded  girls  from  almost  40  to  50  per  cent. 
The  average  attendance  for  the  whole  year  was  830  in  1819, 
846  in  1820,  796  in  1821,  845  in  1822,  812  in  1823,  852  in  1824," 
806  in  1825,  744  in  1826,  886  in  1827,  1000  in  1828.  The  popu- 
lation of  Providence  was  7614  in  1800,  10,071  in  1810, 11,767  in 
1820,  16,836  in  1830.  The  gain  in  average  attendance  in  1828 
was  due  to  a  reorganization  of  the  school  system  undertaken 
in  that  year. 

Besides  the  public  schools,  there  were  six  academies  and  80 
or  90  private  schools  in  Providence  in  1828.  The  amount  paid 
for  tuition  in  private  schools  was  estimated  at  $15,000,  or  four 
times  the  town's  annual  expenditure  for  teachers'  salaries. 

RICHMOND,  SCITUATE  AND  SMITHFIELD. 

Richmond  was  incorporated  in  1747.  No  schoolhouse  is 
known  to  have  been  built  in  Richmond  earlier  than  1806.  In 
that  year  Caleb  Barber  erected  a  stone  building,  which  was 
called  Barber's  Academy,  and  Amos  Lillibridge,  George  Perry, 
David  Kenyon  and  Sprague  Kenyon  built  another  schoolhouse. 
The  latter  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1825.  Other  schoolhouses 
were  built  as  follows:  About  1810,  by  Judge  William  James; 
in  1812,  Clark's  schoolhouse,  near  Stanton's  Corners,  and  the 
Kenyon  schoolhouse,  built  by  Samuel,  Silas,  Benedict  and 
Cory  Kenyon;  in  1826,  the  Bell  schoolhouse.  In  these  houses 
schools  were  kept  fiom  year  to  year.  The  town  did  nothing  to 
aid  public  education.  The  General  Assembly  in  1825  granted  a 
lottery  to  build  a  schoolhouse  in  Richmond.  There  were  three 
schoolhouses  in  Richmond  in  1819,  and  other  schools  were  kept 
in  other  buildings  in  the  town. 

Scituate  was  set  off  from  Providence  in  1730;  Foster  was 
taken  from  Scituate  in  1781.  The  Union  Schoolhouse  Com- 
pany of  Scituate  was  chartered  in  1808;  Scituate  and  Foster 
Academy  in  1817.  There  were  seven  schoolhouses  and  two 
libraries  in  Scituate  in  1819,  and  ten  schoolhouses  in  1828. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  69 

Smithfield,  as  incorporated  in  1730,  comprised  the  territory 
now  included  in  Smithfield,  North  Smithfield,  Lincoln,  Central 
Falls  and  western  Woonsocket.  Tradition  relates  the  building 
of  schoolhouses  at  Greenville,  in  the  Angell  district,  at  Allendale 
and  Stillwater  earlier  than  1776,  but  no  records  to  verify  the 
dates  assigned  have  been  found.  Other  schoolhouses  were  built, 
in  the  Dexter  district,  in  1816;  by  Philip  Allen,  in  1820;  by  S.  A. 
Nightingale,  in  1820.  The  last-mentioned  schoolhouse  was 
rebuilt  in  1827.  Smithfield  was  settled  by  Friends,  who  estab- 
lished a  free  school  for  children  of  their  own  denomination  in 
1777.  This  was  the  migratory  school  mentioned  in  Chapter  I. 
Smithfield  was  one  of  the  few  towns  in  Rhode  Island  which 
undertook  to  provide  free  schools  under  the  state  law  of  1800.* 
In  1799  Philip  Mowry,  William  Buffum,  Joel  Aldrich,  Elisha 
Aldrich,  Duty  Winsor,  Edward  Medbury  and  John  Jenckes,  3d, 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  examine  and  report  on  the  free 
school  act,  then  pending  .before  the  General  Assembly.  The 
general  opinion  in  Smithfield  at  that  time  was  hostile  to  the  act, 
because  it  was  believed  to  be  better  suited  to  the  coast  and 
compact  towns  than  to  rural  towns  like  Smithfield.  Neverthe- 
less, the  committee  report  was  favorable,  and  in  1800  and  1801 
Smithfield  appropriated  $1000  each  year  for  the  support  of  free 
schools.  Again  in  1802  an  appropriation  was  made,  but  at  a 
special  town  meeting  in  September,  1802,  the  vote  was  re- 
scinded, as  it  is  chronicled,  by  votes  of  the  backwoodsmen. 
Twenty-four  district  schools  had  shared  in  the  distribution  of 
the  appropriations.  Smithfield  School  Society  was  chartered 
in  1808,  and  Woonsocket  Public  School  in  1810.  The  Smith- 
field  Female  School  Society  for  some  years  about  1820  main- 
tained a  free  school  for  poor  children;  in  1819  this  school  had 
47  pupils.  The  members  of  the  society  contributed  50  cents 
apiece  a  year  for  support  of  the  school,  which  was  kept  only  in 


*The  statement  in  the  author's  "School  Law  of  R.  I.,"  1914,  p.  9,  that  Providence  was 
the  only  town  that  complied  with  the  act  of  1800,  needa  correction. 


70  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

the  summer  months.  Of  academies  Smithfield  had  three  in 
early  times.  From  some  time  subsequent  to  his  marriage,  in 
1773,  for  20  years  Elisha  Thornton  kept  an  academy  at  Slaters- 
ville.  In  1808  the  General  Assembly  chartered  Smithfield 
Academy  Society,  and  in  1810  granted  it  a  lottery.  The 
academy  continued  until  1853.  Greene  Academy  in  Smithfield 
was  chartered  in  1812,  with  a  lottery.  The  schoolhouse  was 
surrendered  to  the  district  in  1843,  and  the  academy  became  a 
district  school.  Twenty  schools  were  kept  in  Smithfield  in 
1819.  In  1828  the  townspeople  supported  two  academies  and 
19  schools;  there  were  then  13  schoolhouses  in  Smithfield. 

SOUTH  KINGSTOWN,  TIVERTON  AND  WARREN. 

South  Kingstown  was  incorporated  in  1722.  Little  is  known 
of  early  schools  in  the  town,  which  occupied  a  rich  farming 
country,  dotted  with  scattered  plantations.  In  1801  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  granted  a  lottery  to  build  an  academy  in  South 
Kingstown.  Samuel  Sewall  of  Boston,  in  1695,  conveyed  50 
acres  of  land  at  Pettaquamscutt  in  special  trust  "for  the  pro- 
curing, settling  and  supporting  and  maintaining  a  learned, 
sober  and  orthodox  person,  from  tune  to  time  and  at  all  times 
forever  hereafter,  to  instruct  the  children  and  youth  as  well  of 
English  there  settled,  or  to  be  settled,  as  Indians,  the  aboriginal 
natives  of  the  place,  to  read  and  write  the  English  language  and 
the  rules  of  grammar."  In  1781  a  schoolhouse  was  built  on 
Tower  Hill,  pursuant  to  the  grant,  and  in  1819  the  academy 
was  removed  to  Kingston.  The  General  Assembly,  in  1823, 
incorporated  the  academy  as  Pettaquamscutt  Academy,  but 
the  name  was  changed  to  Kingston  Academy  in  1826.  The 
academy  lost  control  of  the  Sewall  foundation  in  1840;  it 
survived,  through  a  somewhat  precarious  existence,  until  1863. 
Four  schools  were  kept  in  South  Kingstown  in  1819;  in  1828 
there  were,  besides  the  academy,  seven  schoolhouses,  in  which 
schools  were  kept  winter  and  summer. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  71 

Tiverton  was  one  of  the  five  towns  transferred  to  Rhode 
Island  in  1747.  The  town  appointed  a  committee  in  1799  to 
consider  the  proposed  free  school  act,  but  no  action  was  taken 
to  carry  the  act  into  effect.  There  were  10  schoolhouses  in 
Tiverton  in  1828,  in  which  schools  were  kept  regularly,  and  a 
few  other  small  schools 

Warren  was  part  of  Swansea,  Massachusetts,  until  1747,  and 
included  Barrington  until  1770.  Of  early  schools  in  what 
is  now  Warren,  no  record  has  been  found.  The  Liberal  School 
Society  of  Warren  was  incorporated  in  1791.  The  General 
Assembly  in  1803  granted  a  lottery  to  aid  Warren  Academy. 
The  town  had  one  schoolhouse  and  the  academy  in  1819.  The 
Warren  Female  Charitable  Society  furnished  relief  for  the  poor 
and  instruction  for  poor  children.  Warren  had  three  quasi- 
public  schools,  one  private  school  and  an  academy  in  1828. 

WARWICK,  WESTERLY  AND  WEST  GREENWICH. 

Warwick  citizens  obtained  three  charters  for  school  societies 
in  the  ten  years  from  1794  to  1804.  These  were  the  Warwick 
North  School  Society,  incorporated  in  1794;  the  Warwick 
West  School  Society,  1803,  and  the  Warwick  Central  School 
Society,  1804.  A  schoolhouse  was  built  in  1798  one  mile  east 
from  what  is  now  Crompton  on  land  given  by  Judge  Stephen 
Arnold;  this  schoolhouse  was  removed  in  1828  across  the  road 
to  land  owned  by  Waterman  Clapp.  It  housed  a  tuition  school, 
which  served  the  village  of  Crompton  and  the  surrounding 
country.  The  first  teacher  was  James  Pollard,  an  Englishman. 
The  school  was  continued  for  a  few  years  atter  1828,  and  the 
house  was  then  altered  into  a  dwelling.  It  was  blown  down 
about  1865.  Other  schools  were  kept  in  rooms  at  various 
places  in  Crompton  after  1810,  but  there  was  no  other  building 
in  Crompton  devoted  exclusively  to  school  purposes  until  1845. 
A  schoolhouse  was  built  at  Centre ville  in  1803,  though  schools 
had  been  kept  in  the  village  previously.  This  was  the  school- 


72  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

house  of  the  Warwick  West  School  Society.  Early  teachers 
were  Joseph  B.  Pettis,  Samuel  Greene,  Sabin  Lewis  and  Oliver 
Johnson.  Miss  Amey  Gorton  taught  school  in  Phenix  as  early 
as  1818,  but  no  school  building  was  constructed  there  earlier 
than  1827,  when  the  Lippitt  and  Phenix  Sabbath  School  Society 
was  chartered  and  built  a  schoolhouse.  Schools  were  kept  in  a 
store  in  Lippitt  some  tune  previous.  The  Phenix  schoolhouse 
was  sold  to  the  school  district  in  1847.  All  these  schools  and 
schoolhouses  were  in  the  western  section  of  Warwick,  in  or  close 
to  the  mill  villages  along  the  banks  of  the  Pawtuxet  river.  The 
General  Assembly,  in  1823,  granted  a  lottery  to  inhabitants  of 
Old  Warwick  to  erect  houses  of  worship  and  for  the  education 
of  youth.  There  were  seven  schoolhouses  in  Warwick  in  1828; 
ten  winter  schools  were  kept  by  men,  and  six  summer  schools 
by  women. 

Westerly  school  history  earlier  than  1828  is  largely  a  matter 
of  tradition.  Some  time  about  1800  what  was  known  as  the 
Red  schoolhouse  was  erected,  though  there  are  stories  of  school- 
masters, particularly  a  Mr.  Slattery,  at  an  earlier  period. 
Pawcatuck  Academy  was  chartered  in  1800,  and  Union  Academy 
in  1816.  In  1828,  besides  the  two  academies,  Westerly  had 
six  schoolhouses,  in  which  schools  were  kept  regularly  the  year 
around. 

West  Greenwich  had  two  schoolhouses  in  1828.  Both  had 
been  built  by  subscription.  Eleven  schools  were  kept  three 
months  in  the  winter,  and  three  of  the  eleven  nearly  the  year 
around. 

TWO  SURVEYS. 

The  General  Assembly,  in  1821,  appointed  a  committee  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  education  in  the  several  towns  of  the 
state,  with  instructions  to  report  at  the  October  session  The 
committee  did  not  report.  Two  attempts  to  collect  school 
statistics  for  the  state,  systematically,  were  made  before  1830, 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  73 

one  in  1819  by  the  Rhode  Island  Register,  and  the  other  in 
1828  by  the  Rhode  Island  American  and  Gazette.  Informa- 
tion for  the  statistics  of  1819  was  obtained  by  inquiries  directed 
to  the  town  clerks;  several  failed  to  make  returns,  and  the  list 
of  towns  was,  therefore,  incomplete.  The  second  estimate  was 
based  upon  "statements  gathered  from  the  Representatives  of 
the  towns  named,*  the  general  correctness  of  which  may  be 
relied  upon,  though  the  statement  is  not  as  full  as  could  be 
wished,"  according  to  the  American  and  Gazette.  The  news- 
paper subsequently  corrected  its  first  statement  with  reference 
to  Scituate 

The  information  collected  by  the  Register  and  by  the  Ameri- 
can and  Gazette  was  not  presented  in  tabular  form.  In  the 
Register  the  school  statistics  for  each  town  reporting  were 
printed  in  a  paragraph  following  a  directory  of  the  town's 
officers.  The  American  and  Gazette  devoted  a  paragraph  to 
each  town,  including  with-  school  statistics  the  town's  popula- 
tion according  to  the  census  of  1820.  Both  surveys  are  pre- 
sented here,  condensed  in  the  form  of  a  table.  The  census 
figures  for  1820  are  placed  with  the  statistics  for  1819,  and  the 
census  figures  for  1830  have  been  added  for  purposes  of  com- 
parison, as  more  nearly  representing  conditions  in  1828  than 
the  older  census  figures.  The  blanks  under  1819  indicate  that 
no  information  was  obtained  by  the  Register  rather  than  that 
there  were  no  schools.  In  both  surveys  figures  that  were 
obviously  incorrect  have  been  corrected,  but  the  departures  from 
the  original  figures,  and  figures  supplied  from  other  sources  for 
the  survey  of  1819,  are  indicated  by  bold  type.  Under  1820, 
whole-year  schools  are  carried  exclusively  in  that  column;  that 
is  to  say,  a  whole-year  school  is  not  listed  also  as  a  summer 
and  as  a  winter  school. 

The  table,  which  appears  upon  page  75,  shows  the  number 
of  schools  kept  and  academies  in  the  several  towns  in  1819,  and 

*Presumably  attending  the  General  Assembly. 


74  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

the  population  in  1820;  the  number  of  schoolhouses,  whole- 
year  schools,  winter  schools,  summer  schools,  the  total  number 
of  schools  and  the  number  of  academies  in  each  town  in  1828, 
and  the  population  in  1830.  The  figures  for  1819,  with  few 
exceptions,  are  from  the  Rhode  Island  Register;  those  for  1828 
are  from  the  American  and  Gazette. 

Unfortunately  the  figures  in  the  two  surveys  are  not  based 
upon  exactly  similar  sources  of  information,  and  only  the  most 
general  comparisons  are  warranted.  These  facts  stand  out 
clearly,  however  : 

No  town  reporting  in  1819  was  without  schools. 
No  Rhode  Island  town  was  without  schools  in  1828. 
There  were  193  schoolhouses  in  the  state  in  1828. 

The  number  of  schools  kept  in  1828,  294,  exceeded  the  number 
kept  in  1819  by  100,  a  gain  of  more  than  50  per  cent.  Popu- 
lation in  approximately  the  same  period  increased  only  16  per 
cent. 

Education  was  a  "lively  experiment"  in  Rhode  Island. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  75 

RHODE  ISLAND  SCHOOL  STATISTICS,  1819  AND  1828. 


Schools,  1819. 

Academies,  1819. 

Population,  1820. 

Schoolhouses,  1828. 

SCHOOLS,  1828. 

Academies,  1828. 

Population,  1830 

3 

•1 

1 
1 

3 

GO 

3 
£ 

Barrington.  . 

2 
8 
10 
10 

8 
6 
9 

0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
G 
0 

634 
3,197 
2,164 
1,160 
3,139 
2,227 
2,653 
1,519 
2,581 
2,900 
2,504 
1,821 
448 
1,542 
1,580 
949 
7,391 
955 
3,007 
2,420 
1,645 
11,767 
1,423 
2,834 
4,678 
3,723 
2,875 
1,806 
3,643 
1,972 
1,927 

3 
3 
11 
1 
10 
11 
13 
5 
3 
15 
11 
9 
3 
5 
8 
5 
2 
1 
1 
7 
4 
5 
2 
10 
11 
7 
10 
4 
5 
6 
2 

3 
7 
1 
0 
0 
16 
13 
0 
0 
15 
0 
3 
1 
0 
-  8 
5 
2 
4 
3 
11 
4 
8 
2 

0 
5 
11 
6 
14 
0 
0 
7 
3 
0 
15 
6 
2 
6 
0 
0 
0 
0 
3 
0 
0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 
3 
7 
0 
0 
3 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
3 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

3 
12 
12 

9 
21 
16 
13 
10 
3 
15 
15 
9 
3 
9 
8 
5 
2 
4 
6 
11 
4 
8 
2 
10 
17 
7 
10 
17 
16 
6 
11 

0 

1 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 
1 

0 
6 
0 
0 
2 
1 
0 

1 

0 
2 
0 

612 

3,034 
2,196 
1,284 
3,851 
2,652 
3,657 
1,591 
1,383 
2,672 
2,521 
1,777 
415 
2,115 
1,378 
915 
8,010 
1,185 
3,036 
3,503 
1,727 
16,836 
1,363 
3,993 
6,857 
3,663 
2,905 
1,800 
5,529 
1,915 
1,817 

Bristol    .... 

Burrillville  

Charlestown  

Coventry  

'Cranston 

Cumberland  

East  Greenwich.  . 

Exeter  

n 

11 
12 
6 
2-3 

7 

2Foster  .    ... 

Glocester  
Hopkinton  

Jamestown  

Johnston  
2Little  Compton  .... 
2Middletown  .... 

3Newport  

New  Shoreham  . 

4North  Kingstown  .  . 
5North  Providence.  . 
2Portsmouth  

12 

8 
7 
14 
3 
7 
20 
4 

1 
2 
0 
2 
0 
0 
2 
1 

6Providence  

5Richmond  

Scituate  

Smithfield  

17 
7 
10 
12 
6 
6 
3 

0 
0 
0 
5 

7 
0 
8 

0 
0 
0 
0 
3 
0 
0 

South  Kingstown  .  .  . 
Tiverton  

Warren  

1 
10 

1 
0 

2 

Warwick  

Westerly  

West  Greenwich  .... 

7Totals  

192 

13 

83,059 

193 

167 

98 

19 

294 

16 

97,210 

1 — The  sixteen  schools  kept  in  Cranston  in  1828  were  not  kept  regularly. 

* — Whole-year  schools  in  Foster,  Little  Compton,  Middletown  and  Portsmouth  were 
not  kept  regularly  in  summer. 

3 — The  Newport  report  covers  only  public  schools.  The  American  omitted  the  Potter 
school. 

4 — The  report  for  North  Kingstown,  1828,  probably  is  wrong. 

* — Not  full  time  schools. 

6 — Only  public  schools  and  academies  are  listed  in  1828.  The  estimate  of  9  private 
schools  in  1819  is  too  small;  it  included  probably  only  well-organized  schools  occupying 
buildings  of  their  own.  In  1821  there  were  44  schools  in  Providence  kept  by  women.  In 
1828  there  were  80  or  90  private  schools  in  Providence.  The  American  estimated  $15,000 
as  the  amount  paid  for  private  tuition. 

7 — The  totals  for  1828  include  10  Scituate  schools  not  classified. 


76  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Commenting  on  its  survey,  the  American  and  Gazette  of 
January  18,  1828,  said:  "We  refer  to  an  article  on  the  outer 
page  showing  the  present  state  of  education  in  Rhode  Island. 
Probably  there  are  some  errors  in  it,  though  great  pains  have 
been  taken  in  making  it  as  accurate  as  possible.  For  instance, 
we  are  informed  that  there  are  ten,  instead  of  five,  schoolhouses  in 
the  town  of  Scituate.  Should  there  be  any  other  similar  errors 
we  should  be  much  obliged  to  the  Representatives,  or  anyone 
who  would  point  them  out.  A  statement  like  this  is  worth  pre- 
serving, and  would  be  a  curious  document  if  published  20  years 
hence,  when  we  shall  have  free  schools  in  every  district  in  the 
state.  We  have  another  reason  for  publishing  this  statement — 
to  show  our  sister  states  that  there  is  by  no  means  an  indiffer- 
ence to  the  subject  of  education  in  this  state.  The  greatest 
deficit  is  the  want  of  a  regular,  well-digested  system,  an  exten- 
sion of  the  present  means  of  education,  and  an  equalization  of 
its  burdens."  The  information  is  even  more  impressive  nearly 
90  years  after  it  was  first  printed  than  after  the  lapse  of  only 
a  generation.  It  demonstrates  beyond  a  doubt  that  Rhode 
Island  was  not  indifferent  to  education  in  1828.  The  survey 
for  1819  shows  that  the  progress  recorded  in  1828  was  not  a 
sudden  growth. 

Providence  and  Newport  had  established  free  public  schools 
before  1828.  Bristol  supported  public  schools  by  an  annual 
appropriation  of  money  derived  in  part  from  the  income  of 
school  property  held  in  trust,  and  in  part  from  taxes  levied  in 
the  form  of  license  fees.  In  Portsmouth  and  Middletown 
school  buildings  occupied  town  land,  and  schools  were  supported 
in  part  from  the  income  of  town  land.  Smithfield  had  main- 
tained free  schools  for  a  brief  period.  Education  was  not 
entirely  a  private  concern  in  other  towns.  Almost  every  town 
in  the  state  had  two  or  more  schoolhouses  erected  by  companies 
of  proprietors  and  supported  by  subscription  and  tuition. 
These  schools  scarcely  could  be,  and  were  not,  generally,  classed 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  77 

as  private  schools.  For  the  most  part  they  were  community 
schools,  in  the  sense  that  the  inhabitants  of  a  village  or  district 
co-operated  to  supply  a  common  school  for  their  children. 

The  great  movement  for  exclusively  public  support  of  schools, 
for  equalization  of  the  burden  of  school  support — the  movement 
that  finally  placed  the  burden  upon  taxable  wealth,  assessed 
whether  the  taxpayer  had  children  or  not,  or  whether  his 
children  attended  public  or  private  schools — in  short  the  move- 
ment that  made  education  a  public  instead  of  a  private  under- 
taking and  concern,  was  well  underway  in  1828.  In  that  year 
the  state  became  an  active  participant  in  the  movement  for 
public  support  of  education. 

THE  STATE  AND  EDUCATION. 

Previous  to  1800  the  state's  assistance  to  education  was  con- 
fined to  exempting  school  property  from  taxation,  to  granting 
charters  of  incorporation  for  institutions  of  learning  and  to 
granting  lotteries  to  assist  in  building  or  maintenance.  The 
Providence  Association  of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers,  in 
1799,  presented  its  petition  to  the  General  Assembly,  asking 
for  the  establishment  by  law  of  free  schools  throughout  the 
commonwealth.  The  petition,  drawn,  as  already  related,  by 
John  Howland,  declared  that  for  want  of  public  attention  and 
encouragement  in  providing  schools  an  essential  part  of  the 
social  duty  of  the  state  had  been  neglected — thus  reaching  the 
most  liberal  modern  conception  of  the  state 's  relation  to  educa- 
tion. Let  John  Howland  speak  for  himself: 

A  Petition  for  Free  Schools. — nTo'  the  Honorable  General 
Assembly  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions, to  be  holden  at  Greenwich,  on  the  last  Monday  of  Feb- 
ruary, A. D.  1799: 

"The  Memorial  and  Petition  of  the  Providence  Association 
of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers  respectfully  presents — 

"That  the  means  of  education  which  are  enjoyed  in  this  state 
are  very  inadequate  to  a  purpose  so  highly  important. 


78  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

"That  numbers  of  the  rising  generation  whom  nature  has 
liberally  endowed,  are  suffered  to  grow  up  in  ignorance,  when 
a  common  education  would  qualify  them  to  act  their  parts  in 
life  with  advantage  to  the  public  and  reputation  to  themselves. 

"That  in  consequence  of  there  being  no  legal  provision  for  the 
establishment  of  schools,  and  for  want  of  public  attention  and 
encouragement,  this  so  essential  part  of  our  social  duty  is  left 
to  the  partial  patronage  of  individuals,  whose  cares  do  not  extend 
beyond  the  limits  of  their  own  families,  while  numbers  in  every 
part  of  the  state  are  deprived  of  a  privilege  which  it  is  the  common 
right  of  every  child  to  enjoy. 

"That  when  to  that  respect  which  as  individuals  we  feel 
ourselves  bound  to  render  to  the  representatives  of  the  people 
we  add  our  public  declaration  of  gratitude  for  the  privilege  we 
enjoy  as  a  corporate  body,  we  at  the  same  time  solicit  this 
Honorable  Assembly  to  make  legal  provision  for  the  establish- 
ment of  free  schools  sufficient  to  educate  all  the  children  in  the 
several  towns  throughout  the  state;  with  great  confidence  we 
bring  this,  our  earnest  solicitation  before  this  Honorable  Assem- 
bly, from  the  interest  we  feel  in  the  public  welfare  and  from  the 
consideration  that  our  society  is  composed  of  members  not 
originally  of  any  one  particular  town,  but  assembled  mostly  in 
our  early  years  from  almost  every  town  in  the  state. 

"That  we  feel  as  individuals  the  want  of  that  education  which 
we  now  ask  to  be  bestowed  on  those  who  are  to  succeed  us  in 
life,  and  which  is  so  essential  in  directing  its  common  concerns. 
That  we  feel  a  still  greater  degree  of  confidence  from  the  con- 
sideration that  while  we  pray  this  Honorable  Assembly  to  estab- 
lish free  schools,  we  are  at  the  same  time  advocating  the  cause  of 
the  great  majority  of  children  throughout  the  state,  and  in 
particular  of  those  who  are  poor  and  destitute — the  son  of  the 
widow  and  the  child  of  distress. 

"Trusting  that  our  occupations  as  mechanics  and  manu- 
facturers ought  not  to  prevent  us  from  adding  to  these  reasons 
an  argument  which  cannot  fail  to  operate  on  those  to  whom  is 
committed  the  guardianship  of  the  public  welfare,  and  that  is, 
liberty  and  security  under  a  republican  form  of  government 
depend  on  a  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  the  people. 

"In  confiding  this  petitidn  and  the  reasons  which  have 
dictated  it  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Legislature  we  assure  ourselves 
that  their  decision  will  be  such  as  will  reflect  on  this  Honorable 
General  Assembly  the  praise  and  the  gratitude,  not  only  of  the 
youth  of  the  present  generation,  but  of  thousands  the  date  of 
whose  existence  has  not  commenced. 

"Respectfully  submitted  by  John  Howland,  Joel  Metcalf, 
William  Richmond,  Peter  Grinnell,  Richard  Anthony,  Grindall 
Reynolds,  Samuel  Thurber,  Jr.,  and  Nathan  Foster,  committee." 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  79 

A  Favorable  Report. — The  petition  was  received  and  referred 
to  a  committee,  which  reported  June  7,  1799,  in  part  as  follows: 

"The  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  memorial  of  the 
Providence  Association  of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers,  on  the 
expediency  of  making  provision  by  law  for  the  support  of  free 
schools,  respectfully  report:  That  they  have  given  to  the 
subject  the  attention  and  consideration  which  its  importance  so 
justly  demanded,  and  have  prepared  a  bill  which,  with  such 
alterations  and  amendments  as  the  wisdom  of  the  General 
Assembly  may  suggest,  they  recommend  to  have  passed  into  a 
law. 

"  Your  committee  would  beg  leave  to  observe  that  no  institu- 
tions of  the  kind- proposed  existing  at  present  in  the  state,  and 
the  want  of  local  divisions  or  parishes,  of  school  committees 
and  a  system  of  school  taxation,  and  especially  superintend- 
ence, render  the  establishment  more  difficult  than  it  may  at 
first  appear,  and  offer  obstacles  to  the  complete  execution  of  it 
in  the  first  trial  which  the  committee  hope  may  be  overcome  by 
time  and  experience.  They  have  no  doubt  that  actual  experi- 
ment will  show  many  defects  in  the  act  now  recommended,  but 
they  believe  it  will  at  the  same  time  suggest  the  proper  reme- 
dies. In  the  operation  of  a  novel  and  extensive  system  diffi- 
culties will  arise  which,  though  they  may  be  reasonably  appre- 
hended, cannot  at  present  be  distinctly  pointed  out,  and  which 
the  wisdom  of  the  General  Assembly  will,  from  time  to  time, 
discover  and  remove.  .  .  . 

"The  encouragement  which  the  General  Assembly  can  give 
to  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  means  of  education  will,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  committee,  not  only  produce  its  proper  and 
immediate  consequence,  but  by  exciting  a  spirit  of  exertion  and 
liberality  in  the  several  towns  and  school  districts,  would  exceed 
all  present  calculations  in  the  important  effect  of  informing, 
improving  and  moralizing  the  people. 

"The  attention  which  the  subject  of  education  has  lately 
awakened  in  the  people,  and  the  paternal  care  of  the  General 
Assembly  to  gratify  the  wishes  and  remove  the  grievances  of 
their  constituents,  excite  in  the  committee  a  pleasing  expecta- 
tion that  the  period  is  not  distant  when  this  state  may  rival  in 
knowledge  and  morals  the  most  refined  and  enlightened  in  the 
nation." 

The  report  was  signed  by  Moses  Lippitt,  Richard  Jackson 
and  James  Burrill.  With  the  report  of  the  committee  was  a 
draft  of  a  free  school  act  drawn  by  James  Burrill.  Certain 
sections  of  the  act  follow: 


80  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

The  Act  of  1800. — " Whereas  the  unexampled  prosperity, 
unanimity  and  liberty  for  the  enjoyment  of  which  this  nation 
is  eminently  distinguished  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  are 
to  be  ascribed,  next  to  the  blessing  of  God,  to  the  general 
diffusion  of  knowledge  and  information  among  the  people, 
whereby  they  have  been  enabled  to  discern  their  true  interests, 
to  distinguish  truth  from  error,  to  place  their  confidence  in  the 
true  friends  of  the  country,  and  to  detect  the  falsehoods  and 
misrepresentations  of  factious  and  crafty  pretenders  to  patriot- 
ism, and  this  General  Assembly  being  desirous  to  secure  the 
continuance  of  the  blessings  aforesaid,  and  moreover  to  con- 
tribute to  the  greater  equality  of  the  people  by  the  common  and 
joint  instruction  and  education  of  the  whole — 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  and  the  authority 
thereof,  and  it  is  hereby  enacted:  That  each  and  every  town 
shall  annually  cause  to  be  established  and  kept,  at  the  expense 
of  such  town,  one  or  more  free  schools  for  the  instruction  of  all 
the  white  inhabitants  of  said  town  between  the  ages  of  six  and 
twenty  years  in  reading,  writing  and  common  arithmetic,  who 
may  stand  in  need  of  said  instruction  and  apply  therefor. 

"2.  And  be  it  further  Enacted:  That  it  shall  be  the  duty 
of  the  town  council  of  every  town  to  divide  said  town  into  so 
many  school  districts  as  they  shall  judge  necessary  and  con- 
venient, provided  no  town  shall  be  divided  into  more  than  four 
such  districts. 

"3.  And  be  it  further  Enacted :  That  each  of  the  towns  of 
Newport  and  Providence  shall  cause  to  be  established  and  kept 
so  many  free  schools  and  for  such  term  as  shall  be  equivalent  to 
keep  three  schools  eight  months  each;  .  .  .  South  Kings- 
town, Glocester  and  Smithfield,  three  schools  six  months  each; 
.  .  .  Portsmouth,  Tiverton,  Little  Compton,  Scituate,  Cum- 
berland, Cranston,  Johnston,  Foster,  Westerly,  North  Kings- 
town, Charlestown,  Exeter,  Richmond,  Hopkinton,  Bristol, 
Warwick,  East  Greenwich,  West  Greenwich  and  Coventry, 
three  schools  four  months  each;  .  .  .  Middletown,  Johns- 
ton, New  Shoreham,  North  Providence,  Warren  and  Barrington, 
one  school  four  months." 

Section  4  provided  for  remission  to  towns  complying  with  the 
act  of  twenty  per  cent,  of  taxes  paid  by  the  town  to  the  state; 
section  5,  that  money  so  remitted  should  be  used  exclusively 
for  school  support;  section  6,  for  forfeiture  by  neglect  to  keep 
schools;  section  7,  for  annual  reports  to  the  General  Assembly. 
Section  8  permitted  any  school  district  at  a  meeting  of  freemen 
called  for  the  purpose,  seven  freemen  being  a  quorum,  to  assess 
a  tax  on  ratable  estates  in  the  district  for  building,  repairing  or 
improving  a  schoolhouse  or  for  extending  jthe  school  term. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   A   STATE   SYSTEM.  81 

Section  9  required  teachers  to  be  citizens  of  the  United  States,* 
certificated  by  town  councils.  Section  10  made  the  town 
council  in  each  town  a  school  committee. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  June  12,  1799,  it  was 
"voted  and  resolved  that  500  copies  of  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  expediency  of  establishing  free  schools,  and  of  the 
bill  for  that  purpose  by  them  reported,  be  printed,  and  a 
copy  of  the  same  be  delivered  to  each  member  of  this  House  and 
of  the  Senate,  and  another  copy  transmitted  by  the  members 
to  the  several  town  clerks,  and  that  further  consideration  of  the 
subject  be  referred  to  the  next  session."  The  Senate  concurred 
June  14,  1799. 

The  Act  Passed  and  Repealed. — The  House  of  Representatives 
passed  the  bill  at  the  October  session,  1799,  but  the  Senate 
postponed  consideration  to  the  next  February  session,  when 
concurrence  was  unanimous.  Providence  immediately  organ- 
ized its  first  free  schools  under  the  act.  Smithfield  complied 
with  the  act  for  two  years.  Middletown  claimed  tax  remission 
on  account  of  a  free  school.  Bristol  probably  could  have 
qualified  for  tax  remission.  Otherwise  the  towns  did  not 
comply  with  the  law;  several  protested.  The  act  was  repealed 
in  1803.  Providence  continued  the  free  schools  established 
under  the  act,  in  spite  of  its  repeal. 

The  almost  complete  failure  of  the  act  of  1800  might  have 
disheartened  its  proponents  had  they  not  accomplished  one  of 
their  primary  purposes — the  establishment  of  free  schools  in 
Providence  after  33  years  of  agitation.  As  it  was,  the  vigorous 
opposition  developed  in  the  towns  proved  decisively  that  the 
movement  for  statewide  public  schools  was  premature.  The 
General  Assembly  continued  to  charter  academies  and  school 
societies,  and  to  grant  lotteries  for  educational  purposes  ; 
citizens  of  the  towns  continued  to  organize,  to  build  school- 
houses  and  subscribe  for  the  maintenance  of  teachers.  Interest 

*The  State  Board  of  Education  in  1917  added  to  the  requirements  for  certification  an 
oath  or  pledge  of  loyalty  to  the  state  and  nation. 


82  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   KHODE   ISLAND. 

in  education  produced  a  wholesome  growth  of  opportunities  for 
schooling. 

Governor  Knight's  Message. — Governor  Nehemiah  R.  Knight, 
in  a  message  to  the  General  Assembly  in  October,  1818,  rec- 
ommended provision  of  public  schools  for  youth  employed  in 
factories,  thus  : 

"While  the  general  Government  protects  and  encourages 
agriculture,  commerce  and  manufactures,  the  legislatures  of  the 
several  states  are  the  immediate  guardians  of  the  public  morals 
and  education;  to  them  is  more  particularly  entrusted  the 
duty  of  providing  for  the  cultivating  and  enlightening  of  the 
mind,  a  trust  so  essential  in  all  good  societies  and  especially  so 
in  a  government  where  all  power  is  vested  in  the  people,  and  all 
the  acts  of  the  public  functionaries  are  weighed  and  tested  by 
public  opinion.  It  is  true  that  many  persons  have  done  much 
by  establishing  Sunday  schools*  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
manufacturing  villages  of  the  state;  but  when  we  reflect  how 
small  a  portion  of  time  is  appropriated  to  education  by  Sunday 
schools  alone,  we  must  be  sensible  that  the  acquirements  of  the 
youth  who  labor  in  these  factories  must  be  extremely  limited. 
And  it  is  a  lamentable  truth  that  too  many  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion who  are  obliged  to  labor  in  those  works  of  almost  un- 
ceasing application  and  industry,  are  growing  up  without  an 
opportunity  of  obtaining  that  education  which  is  necessary  for 
their  personal  welfare,  as  well  as  the  welfare  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. 

"I  am  well  assured  that  a  plan  can  be  devised  and  carried 
into  effect  by  the  aid  of  the  Legislature,  and  without  any 
expense  to  the  state,  that  shall  educate  them  in  a  manner  that 
will  make  them  not  only  useful  to  their  country,  but  also  to 
themselves,  and  will  enable  them,  not  only  to  exercise  the 
privileges  of  freemen,  but  be  capable  of  estimating  these 
blessings." 

A  committee  appointed  to  consider  the  recommendation 
reported  that  it  was  inexpedient  to  establish  public  schools  for 
persons  employed  in  manufacturing  establishments. 

A  Committee  That  Did  Not  Report. — The  General  Assembly, 
on  June  21,  1821,  "voted  and  resolved  that  C.  Ellery  Robbins, 
Philip  Allen,  Nathaniel  Bullock,  Nathan  F.  Dixon  and  Charles 
Brayton,  Esquires,  be  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the  state 

*Early  Rhode  Island  Sunday  schools  were  devoted  to  secular  education. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  83 

of  education  in  the  several  towns  of  the  state,  and  that  they 
make  their  report  to  this  General  Assembly  at  the  ensuing 
October  session. 

"Voted  and  resolved  that  the  town  clerks  of  the  several  towns 
be,  and  they  are  hereby,  directed  to  make  a  correct  return  to  the 
chairman  of  said  committee  of  the  number  of  schools  in  their 
respective  towns,  and  the  branches  of  learning  taught  therein; 
of  the  number  of  months  of  the  year  in  which  the  schools  are 
opened,  the  average  expense  of  tuition  for  said  schools,  and  the 
number  of  pupils  attending  the  same,  and  they  are  further 
hereby  directed  to  furnish  to  the  chairman  of  said  committee  a 
correct  statement  of  the  number  and  condition  of  the  several 
schoolhouses  in  their  respective  towns,  specifying  at  whose  ex- 
p.ense  they  were  built  and  at  whose  charge  they  are  kept  up, 
and  generally  such  other  information  with  respect  to  the  public 
and  private  schools  in  the  state -as  the  committee  may  think  fit 
to  require.  .  .  ." 

The  committee  did  not  report.  Exactly  three  years  after  the 
appointment  of  this  committee,  a  constitutional  convention, 
which  met  at  Newport,  adopted  a  proposed  constitution,  which 
the  freemen  did  not  ratify.  The  proposed  constitution  con- 
tained an  article  entitled  "  Education,"  which  provided  for  the 
accumulation  of  a  permanent  school  fund,  the  income  of  which, 
when  sufficient,  was  to  be  applied  to  the  support  of  free  schools 
in  every  town  in  the  state. 

Four  years  later  the  General  Assembly  enacted  a  general 
school  law,  providing  an  appropriation  of  $5000  to  and  the 
accumulation  of  a  permanent  school  fund,  and  the  distribution 
of  $.10,000  annually  for  the  support  of  public  schools  in  the 
several  towns.  The  story  of  its  enactment  and  the  changes 
which  it  wrought  in  Rhode  Island  schools  belongs  in  another 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  III. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  STATE  SCHOOL 
SYSTEM. 


The  public  press  of  Rhode  Island  has  generally  advocated 
schools  and  the  extension  of  school  facilities.  Educational 
leaders  and  educational  reformers  usually  have  had  the  hearty 
support  of  editors.  If,  indeed,  the  finger  of  editorial  criticism 
has  pointed  sometimes  at  schoolmen  and  school  methods  and 
school  conditions,  the  purpose  has  been,  almost  without  excep- 
tion, to  stimulate  improvement  by  change;  such  criticism  is 
wholesome  and  benign. 

Cause  and  effect  are  difficult  to  unravel,  so  closely  are  they  in- 
terwoven; who  shall  determine  whether  a  newspaper  has  created 
public  opinion,  or  has  merely  voiced  public  sentiment?  The 
answer  of  philosophy  is  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  notion  of  a 
free  idea  with  determinism,  in  the  doctrine  of  pragmatism 
applied  to  social  psychology.  The  newspaper  is  the  voice  of 
the  group;  when  it  fails  to  speak  truly  the  opinion  and  feeling 
of  the  group,  it  wants  adaptation  and  is  doomed  to  failure.  The 
test  of  truth-speaking  lies  in  long-time  perspective  and  accom- 
plishment; for  newspapers  sometimes  weather  temporary 
storms  aroused  by  unpropitious  utterances.  There  was  no 
serious  opposition  to  the  leadership  assumed  by  the  press  of 
Rhode  Island  in  1827  and  1828.  Consequently  it  is  logical  to 
conclude  that  the  newspapers,  which  unanimously  advocated 
state  support  of  education,  spoke  for  the  people  of  Rhode 
Island.  And  this  it  is  possible  to  do  without  detracting  in  any 
way  from  the  credit  due  the  Rhode  Island  American  and 


ORGANIZATION   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  85 

Gazette  and  its  able  editor,  B.  F.  Hallett,  for  their  part  in 
fostering  the  movement  which  resulted  in  the  general  school 
legislation  of  1828. 

Reviewing  earlier  events  briefly:  A  free  school  law  enacted 
in  1800  was  repealed  in  1803.  A  committee  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  1818  reported  as  inexpedient  Governor  Knight's 
proposition  to  establish  free  schools  for  youth  employed  in 
factories.  A  committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  appointed  in 
1821  to  collect  school  statistics,  failed  to  report.  A  constitution 
that  provided  for  a  permanent  school  fund  was  rejected  by  the 
freemen  in  1824. 

The  General  Assembly,  in  1825r  referred  a  proposed  "act 
for  the  establishment  of  lotteries  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a 
fund  for  the  support  of  free  schools"  to  the  next  session. 

The  American  and  Gazette  printed  on  October  16,  1827,  and 
the  Microcosm  on  October  19,  1827,  repeated,  an  editorial 
which  declared: 

"No  man  who  knows  anything  about  the  subject  will  deny 
that  there  are  a  less  number  of  schools  and  vastly  a  less  number 
of  children  engaged  at  school  in  this  state  than  within  the  same 
extent  and  among  an  equal  number  of  population  in  any  state 
in  New  England.  The  consequence  must  be,  unless  it  can  be 
shown  that  learning  is  intuitive,  that  the  youth  of  Rhode  Island 
are  not  so  well  educated  as  the  children  in  any  other  state, 
where  free  schools  are  established.  .  .  ." 

The  editor  modified  his  view  subsequently.  On  January  18, 
1828,  he  wrote:  "Theie  is  a  much  larger  number  of  school- 
houses  erected  than  has  been  generally  supposed,  and  but  few 
additional  ones  will  be  required."  In  the  interval  he  had 
come  into  possession  of  the  facts  concerning  Rhode  Island 
schools — facts  neglected  by  those  who  have  written  the  history 
of  education  in  Rhode  Island  apologetically. 

"It  would  be  a  fine  opportunity,  calmly  and  seriously,  to  take 
up  the  subject  of  free  schools,  and  provide  a  fund  from  lottery 
patronage  and  other  taxes  or  surplus  revenue.  There  is  on  the 


86  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

docket  no  business  of  great  importance,"  said  the  American 
and  Gazette  on  October  20,  1827. 

A  bill  to  raise  a  fund  for  public  schools  by  lottery  was  included 
in  the  unfinished  business  at  the  October  session,  1827.  On 
October  30,  1827,  Representatives  Tillinghast  of  Providence, 
Lapham  of  Burrillville  and  Waterman  of  South  Kingstown 
presented  memorials  urging  free  schools.  These  were  referred 
to  a  committee,  consisting  of  Representatives  Tillinghast  of 
Providence,  Trevett  of  Newport,  Howe  of  Bristol,  Waterman 
of  Warwick  and  Dixon  of  Westerly.  Other  memorials  had 
been  received  from  Smithfield,  Cumberland,  Johnston  and  East 
Greenwich. 

Representative  Waterman  of  Warwick  presented  a  set  of 
resolutions,  as  follows  : 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  highly  expedient  that  a  fund  be  created 
and  established,  to  be  denominated  the  school  fund. 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  expedient  that  the  sum  of dollars 

be  appropriated  out  of  the  money  now  in  the  treasury  to  the 
object  of  the  foregoing  resolution. 

"Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed,  together  with 
such  as  the  Honorable  Senate  shall  appoint,  for  the  purpose  of 
maturing  and  representing  to  each  of  the  houses  of  the  Assembly 
an  act  embodying  the  object  of  the  foregoing." 

The  resolutions,  which,  if  adopted,  would  have  created  a  school 
fund,  but,  incidentally,  would  have  defeated  the  movement  for 
the  establishment  of  free  schools  immediately,  were  tabled. 
Waterman  was  leader  of  the  opposition  to  free  schools;  yet  so 
strong  was  public  sentiment  he  dared  not  venture  openly  to 
oppose  what  he  probably  realized  was  inevitable. 

First  Draft  of  the  Act  of  1828. — Representative  Tillinghast,  on 
Thursday,  November  1,  1827,  reported  from  committee  a  bill, 
which  was  read  the  first  time.  It  provided  that  all  money 
accruing  to  the  state  from  lottery  taxes  and  auction  fees  should 
be  paid  to  the  several  towns  at  the  ratio  of  taxation  in  1 824 — 
not  to  exceed  a  blank  sum  in  any  year — the  towns  receiving-  their 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  87 

proportion  first  erecting,  at  their  ovvn  expense,  or  otherwise  pro- 
viding schoolhouses,  not  less  than  two  in  each  town,  and  raising 
in  such  way  as  they  thought  proper  an  annual  sum  equal  (or 
such  proportion  as  may  be  determined  when  the  act  passes)  to 
the  sum  received  out  of  the  general  treasury,  to  be  put  in  the 
hands  of  a  free  school  committee  of  not  less  than  seven  nor 
more  than  twenty-one,  who  should  have  power  to  draw  the 
town's  portion  from  the  state  treasury,  and  to  provide  teachers 
and  generally  to  superintend  the  schools  in  their  respective 
towns.  Towns  neglecting  to  provide  schools  forfeited  any 
right  to  participation  in  the  distribution  of  state  money,  and 
money  thus  forfeited  was  to  be  added  to  the  sum  to  be  dis- 
tributed by  the  state  in  the  year  following.  The  proposed  act 
also  appropriated  a  blank  sum  for  a  permanent  school  fund,  to 
which  was  to  be  added  all  revenue  from  lotteries  and  auctions 
in  excess  of  the  sum  annually  distributed  to  the  towns  for  school 
support.  This  bill  was  the  first  draft  of  the  act  of  1828;  it 
made  no  further  progress  until  the  January  session,  1828. 

THE  FIGHT  FOR  FREE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

The  American  and  Gazette  in  1828,  took  up  the  fight  for  free 
schools  in  earnest.  January  4,  it  said: 

"  There  is  one  subject  of  much  more  importance  to  Rhode 
Island  than  the  election  of  a  President,  and  that  is  the  estab- 
lishment of  free  schools.  To  be  sure,  those  who  would  favor 
a  military  depotism  would  not  be  anxious  to  disseminate  educa- 
tion, but  this  is  a  question  involving  the  dearest  interest  of 
present  and  future  generations,  and  all  others  ought  to  be  made 
to  yield  to  it." 

Anticipating  the  opening  of  the  January  session  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  the  same  newspaper,  on  Jantiary  11,  said: 

"Among  all  the  subjects  which  will  come  before  them  (the 
General  Assembly)  the  bill  for  establishing  free  schools  stands 
pre-eminent.  This  deserves  an  early  and  deliberate  considera- 
tion. Happily  no  real  difference  of  opinion  exists  as  to  the 
expediency  of  establishing  free  schools,  and  we  do  not  believe 


88  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

that  if  the  question  were  taken  by  ayes  and  noes,  a  single  mem- 
ber of  the  House  would  answer  in  the  negative.  There  are 
three  or  four  members  in  the  Senate  we  should  anticipate  a 
negative  vote  from,  in  accordance  with  their  uniform  objection 
to  every  measure  of  public  opinion  and  improvement.  The 
only  question  that  will  produce  difference  of  opinion  is  the  mode 
of  establishing  schools,  the  ways  and  means  by  which  they  are 
to  be  supported — whether  it  shall  depend  upon  a  somewhat 
precarious  revenue  derived  from  lotteries,  etc.,  or  whether  to 
this  sum  shall  be  added  an  equal  or  proportional  amount  raised 
by  the  several  towns  in  such  manner  as  they  may  think  proper. 
As  to  the  plan  proposed  by  Mr.  Waterman,*  the  benefits  of 
which  are  to  be  experienced  by  the  children  of  the  great- 
grandchildren of  the  present  generation,  no  man  who  is  a  father 
can  listen  to  it  a  moment.  We  do  not  believe  in  the  maxim 
'Let  posterity  take  care  of  itself/  but  it  surely  is  a  correct 
principle  that  we  should  first  provide  for  the  present  rising 
generation.  Let  free  schools  be  established  to  the  extent  our 
present  means  will  allow,  and  future  generations  will  provide 
for  preserving  and  enlarging  the  system.  There  is  no  instance 
in  which  a  system  of  free  schools,  once  fairly  established,  has 
been  abandoned.  It  can,  moreover,  be  plainly  shown  that  the 
voluntary  tax  to  be  raised  by  each  of  the  towns  to  entitle  them 
to  an  equal  or  larger  sum  from  the  treasury,  will  not  exceed  the 
amount  they  already  pay  for  the  schools  kept  within  their 
limits.  Under  the  contemplated  bill  they  will,  therefore,  receive 
double  the  benefits  they  now  experience,  at  no  greater  expense 
than  they  already  voluntarily  incur  for  the  education  of  their 
children." 

The  Movement  in  1828  Co-operative. — One  who  reads  the 
editorial  in  the  American  and  Gazette  without  an  understanding 
of  the  conditions  actually  existing  in  Rhode  Island  at  the  period 
incurs  the  danger  of  serious  misunderstanding.  It  may  fairly 
be  inferred  from  the  trend  of  the  editorial  that  the  proposed 
law  imposed  upon  the  towns  of  the  state  no  greater  burden  than 
they  had  already  taken  for  education.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  only 
two  towns,  Newport  and  Providence,  were  supporting  free 
public  schools.  With  respect  to  all  other  towns  the  editorial 
must  be  read  as  referring,  when  it  speaks  of  "  the  amount  which 
they  already  pay  for  the  schools  kept  within  their  limits,"  to 
schools  maintained  privately,  by  school  societies  and  other 

*The  school  fund  proposition  of  October,  1827. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  89 

voluntary  co-operative  agencies.  There  can  be  no  question  or 
doubt  that  the  state's  first  definite  venture  with  provision  for 
public  schools  aimed  to  unite  quasi-public  agencies  and  bring 
them  as  far  as  possible  under  public  control.  All  that  was 
necessary  to  comply  with  the  terms  of  the  act  and  earn  the 
right  to  participate  in  the  distribution  of  state  money  was  the 
transfer  of  school  control  from  private  agencies  to  the  town 
school  committee.  Property  rights  and  titles  might  remain 
unaffected. 

The  Debate  in  1828. — The  Tillinghast  bill  was  read  a  second 
time  January  15,  and  the  House  of  Representatives  made  it  a 
special  order  for  Thursday,  January  17.  An  animated  debate 
continued  through  morning  and  afternoon  sessions  until  after 
5  o'clock  on  Thursday.  Representative  Waterman  of  Warwick 
again  urged  a  substitute  bill  providing  for  the  accumulation  of  a 
school  fund,  subject  to  action  by  a  future  General  Assembly. 
He  was  supported  by  Representatives  Potter,  Hazard  and 
Bull.  Representatives  Tillinghast,  Dixon,  Simmons,  Allen  and 
Bicknell  opposed  the  Waterman  proposition.  It  was  rejected, 
only  nine  members  voting  for  it.  By  this  test  vote  the  sup- 
porters of  immediate  action  proved  their  strength. 

The  House  then  proceeded  to  consider  the  proposed  act  by 
sections.  The  basis  of  apportionment  was  changed  from 
taxable  wealth,  or  taxes  paid,  as  in  the  act  of  1800,  to  population 
under  sixteen.  The  amount  to  be  appropriated  by  the  state 
annually  was  fixed  at  $10,000.  Unfortunately  the  section  re- 
quiring towns  to  build  or  provide  schoolhouses  and  to  supple- 
ment state  support  by  town  taxation  failed;  instead,  a  sub- 
stituted section  permitted  towns  to  raise  by  taxation  not  ex- 
ceeding twice  the  amount  paid  by  the  state,  but  established  no 
minimum  requirement.  Expediency,  perhaps,  made  discretion 
the  better  choice;  the  friends  of  the  free  school  movement 
realized  that  the  act  was  least  likely  to  fail  if  it  imposed  no 
burden  immediately  and  directly  upon^town  taxpayers.  Close- 


90  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

fisted  ratepayers  could  interpose  no  valid  objection  to  an 
improvement  which  cost  them  nothing.  The  amended  bill  was 
then  sent  back  for  revision  to  the  committee,  to  which  Repre- 
sentatives Bull  and  Bicknell  were  added. 

Moulding  Public  Opinion.- — The  American  and  Gazette  of 
January  18  published  a  communication  signed  "Hopkins," 
which  urged  immediate  action  and  opposed  the  Waterman 
plan  for  a  school  fund  for  five  reasons :  1.  Because  it  does  not 
provide  for  the  present  generation.  2.  Because  the  money 
from  lotteries  (paid  by  poor  people,  which  it  is  proposed  to  apply 
to  school  support)  is  in  hand  and  should  be  distributed.  3. 
Because  it  is  impossible  to  tell  what  a  General  Assembly  of  the 
future  may  do  with  the  money  when  the  school  fund  has  accum- 
ulated and  is  providing  a  handsome  revenue.  4.  Because  it  is 
dangerous  to  wait  until  $300,000  shall  be  accumulated.  5. 
Because  five  dollars  in  a  mental  savings  bank  is  worth  one 
hundred  dollars  in  silver.  The  third  reason  was  almost  pro- 
phetic of  the  future  history  of  the  permanent  school  fund. 
"Hopkins"  advocated  election  of  a  General  Assembly  that 
would  provide  schools,  if  the  Legislature  then  in  session  failed 
to  act.  He  felt  certain  of  public  opinion. 

On  the  same  day,  January  18,  the  American  and  Gazette 
printed  a  survey  of  school  conditions  in  the  state,*  the  data 
having  been  solicited  from  Representatives  of  the  towns.  Com- 
menting on  the  survey,  the  newspaper  said,  in  words  which 
emphasize  the  desirability  of  establishing  public  control  over 
educational  agencies  : 

"  From  an  examination  of  the  above  statement,  it  will  be  seen 
that  there  is  a  much  larger  number  of  schoolhouses  erected  than 
has  been  generally  supposed,  and  but  few  additional  ones  will  be 
required.  It  is  obvious,  too,  that  the  expense  to  all  the  towns 
to  keep  up  the  schools  they  now  maintain  is  a  much  greater 
sum  than  they  will  be  required  to  assess  in  order  to  entitle  them 
to  their  proportion  of  any  money  that  may  be  appropriated  out 

*The  survey  is  tabularized  in  thg  preceding  chapter. 


ORGANIZATION   OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  91 

of  the  treasury,  thus  giving  them,  at  a  less  expense  than  the 
inhabitants  of  these  towns  now  voluntarily  incur,  nearly  double 
the  advantages  of  education  they  are  now  receiving. 

"The  total  number  of  schoolhouses  located  in  all  the  towns 
in  the  state  (exclusive  of  Providence  and  Newport)  are  181, 
and  10  academies.  The  number  of  winter  schools  averaging  at 
least  three  months  a  year,  maintained  by  the  inhabitants  of 
these  towns,  is  262.  A  winter  school  for  three  months  must 
cost  at  least  $100,  which  gives  $262,000,  the  sum  now  annually 
paid  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  above  alluded  to,  for  the 
education  of  their  children,  besides  the  expense  of  keeping 
female*  schools  in  summer.  If  the  blank  in  the  bill  now  before 
the  General  Assembly  is  rilled  with  $10,000,  the  proportion  which 
those  towns  will  receive  from  that  sum  will  so  much  diminish 
their  expense  of  education;  or  if  they  add  to  it  what  they  now 
pay  within  themselves,  \vill  greatly  extend  the  means  of  in- 
struction among  their  children,  without  one  cent  additional 
burden,  the  only  effect  being  to  equalize  the  payment  of  the 
sums  now  voluntarily  raised,  in  the  several  towns." 

The  American  and  Gazette  published  a  verbatim  report  of 
the  debate  on  the  school  bill,  written  by  its  editor,  B.  F.  Hallett. 
The  newspaper  advocated  the  taking  of  all  votes  by  ayes  and 
noes,  so  that  each  member  of  the  General  Assembly  might  be 
put  on  record  for  the  information  of  his  constituents. 

When  the  roll  was  called  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on 
the  final  division,  only  Almy  of  Little  Compton  and  Gray  of 
Tiverton  voted  no.  Smith  of  Scituate  was  excused  from  voting. 
Arnold,  Allen,  Bailey,  Bull,  Potter,  Peckham,  Simmons,  Stone 
and  Waterman  were  "absent"  when  the  roll  was  called.  The 
Senate  concurred  unanimously,  after  making  a  few  amend- 
ments. The  act  adopted  was  a  compromise  measure,  but  only 
in  the  sense  that  it  incorporated  provisions  both  for  a  per- 
manent school  fund  and  for  free  schools  immediately.  The 
friends  of  free  schools  had  won  a  decisive  victory. 

THE  SCHOOL  ACT  OF  1828. 

The  school  act  of  1828  provided  (section  1)  that  all  money 
paid  into  the  general  treasury  by  managers  of  lotteries  or  their 

*Female  schools"  in  1828  meant  schools  taught  by  women;  not  schools  for  women  or 

girls . 


92  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

agents,  and  also  all  money  accruing  to  the  state  from  auction 
duties,  should  be  set  apart  and  paid  over  to  the  several  towns, 
in  proportion  to  their  respective  population  under  16  years  of 
age,  "to  be  by  said  towns  appropriated  to  and  for  the  exclusive 
purpose  of  keeping  public  schools  and  paying  expenses  thereof, 
the  sum,  however,  hereby  appropriated  to  be  paid  over  in  any 
one  year  not  to  exceed  $10,000." 

Sec.  2.  That  each  town  shall  be  and  is  hereby  empowered  to 
raise  so  much  money  by  tax  in  each  year  as  a  majority  of  the 
freemen  in  town  meeting  shall  judge  proper  to  be  appropriated 
to  the  purpose  of  public  schools,  not  exceeding,  in  any  one  year, 
double  the  amount  to  be  in  that  year  received  by  such 
town  out  of  the  general  treasury  by  the  provisions  of  this  act; 
provided  that  notice  be  inserted  in  the  warrant  issued  for  calling 
the  town  meeting  at  which  such  tax  shall  be  laid  that  such  tax 
will  be  acted  upon  at  such  town  meeting. 

Sec.  3.  That  at  the  annual  town  meeting  holden  for  the 
choice  of  town  officers,  each  and  every  town  in  the  state  shall, 
after  passing  of  this  act,  appoint  a  committee,  which  shall  be 
called  the  school  committee,  and  shall  consist  of  not  less  than 
five  nor  more  than  twenty-one  persons,  resident  inhabitants  of 
each  of  said  towns,  to  act  without  compensation. 

Sec.  4.  That  the  school  committee  of  each  town  shall  have 
power  to  make  all  necessary  rules  and  regulations  which  they 
may  deem  expedient,  for  the  good  government  of  the  public 
schools  in  their  respective  towns;  shall  appoint  all  school- 
masters and  schoolmistresses  to  be  employed  in  teaching  the 
schools,  taking  care  that  such  masters  and  mistresses  are  qualified 
for  the  task;  shall  have  power  to  dismiss  a  schoolmaster  or 
schoolmistress  in  case  of  inability  or  mismanagement;  shall 
determine  upon  the  places  where  the  schools  shall  be  located 
in  the  respective  school  districts  in  the  towns.  .  .  . 

Sec.  5  required  the  General  Treasurer  to  keep  a  separate 
account  of  money  paid  into  the  treasury  by  lottery  managers 
and  auctioneers  and  to  report  annually  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly. Sec.  6  required  town  councils  to  certify  annually  that 
the  money  received  the  previous  year  had  been  faithfully 
applied  to  the  objects  contemplated  by  the  act,  as  a  condition 
precedent  to  sharing  in  current  and  subsequent  apportion- 
ments. Sec.  7  fixed  June  1  as  the  date  for  the  annual  appor- 
tionment. Sec.  8  appropriated  $5000  for  a  permanent  school 
fund,  to  which  should  be  added  annually  the  excess  of  receipts 
from  lottery  managers  and  auctioneers  and  the  income  of  the 
fund  itself  over  $10,000. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  93 

Sec.  9.  That  whenever  in  any  year  the  money  paid  into  the 
treasury  from  the  sources  provided  in  this  act  shall  fall  short 
of  said  sum  of  $10,000,  the  deficiency  for  said  year  shall  be  made 
good  from  any  money  in  the  treasury  not  otherwise  appro- 
priated. 

The  act  of  1828  thus  provided  an  unfailing  annual  appro- 
priation of  .$10,000  for  support  of  public  schools,  to  be  main- 
tained by  the  towns,  and  placed  the  control  of  town  public 
schools  in  the  hands  of  school  committees  to  be  chosen  by  the 
freemen  in  town  meeting.  The  act  of  1828  differed  from  the 
act  of  1800  in  eight  essentials  : 

1.  The  amount  appropriated  was  fixed  at  $10,000,  whereas 
the  amount  to  be  distributed  under  the  earlier  act  might 
fluctuate  under,  but  never  could  exceed  $6000. 

2.  The  ratio  of  apportionment  was  based  approximately 
upon  school  population,  instead  of  upon  ratable  wealth. 

3.  The  act  imposed  no  duty  upon  towns  to  supplement  the 
state  appropriation,  whereas  the  act  of  1800  required  the  towns 
to  maintain  free  schools. 

4.  The  act  limited  the  amount  which  a  town  might  raise  by 
tax  for  school  support,  whereas  the  act  of  1800  imposed  no 
limitation,  but  rather  provided  a  simple  machinery  for  extension 
of  school  support. 

5.  Control  of  town  schools  was  vested  in  school  committees 
chosen  by  the  freemen,  instead  of  in  town  councils. 

6.  The  act  of  1828  provided  for  a  permanent  school  fund; 
the  act  of  1800  did  not. 

7.  The  act  of  1828  designated  the  schools  to  be  maintained 
"public  "  schools,  instead  of  the  "free"  schools  of  the  earlier  act. 

8.  The  act  of  1828  sanctioned  the  creation  of  school  dis- 
tricts, but  made  no  provision  for  school  district  meetings  and 
separate  school  maintenance  by  school  districts,  as  had  the  act 
of    1800.     Neither   act,    however,    sanctioned   the  control   of 
district  schools  by  trustees,  an  unfortunate  innovation  intro- 
duced in  Rhode  Island  by  Henry  Barnard. 


94  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   KHODE    ISLAND. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  ACT  OF  1828. 

John  Rowland  reviewed  the  new  act  caustically,  thus:  "By 
the  new  state  law  for  the  encouragement,  or  rather  for  the 
discouragement  of  schools,  each  town  is  to  receive  a  small  sum 
annually  from  the  state  treasury  and  are  allowed  to  assess  a 
small  sum,  I  don't  recollect  how  much,  in  a  town  tax  for  the 
same  purpose.  This  limitation,  beyond  which  the  towns  are 
prohibited  from  assessing,  was  passed  in  the  General  Assembly 
by  the  influence  of  members  who  were  opposed  to  the  general 
instruction  of  children  throughout  the  state,  and  wished  to 
confine  it  to  paupers." 

The  state  was  divided  into  323  school  districts*  under  the 
act,  and  the  state  appropriation  thus  averaged  $30.96  per 
district.  The  American  and  Gazette  estimated  the  cost  of 
keeping  a  three-months  school  at  $100,  that  is  $8.33  per  week 
for  12  weeks,  or  $7.69  per  week  for  13  weeks.  Teachers  could 
be  hired  at  such  figures;  Providence  paid  only  $500  annually 
for  schoolmasters  who  taught  all  the  year  around,  or  less  than 
$10  per  week,  while  ushers,  or  assistant  teachers  were  paid  $250 
per  year,  or  less  than  $5  per  week.  The  state  and  town  appro- 
priations, if  the  town  appropriated  up  to  the  limit  permitted 
by  law,  amounted  to  the  cost  of  keeping  a  free  school  at  least 
three  months  in  every  district.  This  was  a  small  beginning, 
but  it  was  a  good  beginning,  and  it  produced  results  and  bore 
good  fruit  immediately. 

The  Towns  Act.  —  Burrillville,  a  new  town,  set  off  from 
Glocester  in  1806  and  named  for  James  Burrill,  who  wrote  the 
school  act  of  1800,  appointed  a  committee  of  23  members  to 
divide  the  town  into  school  districts,  and  a  school  committee 
of  21,  which  it  reduced  to  16  in  1829.  The  town  appropriated 
$300  to  supplement  the  state  apportionment,  which  amounted  to 
$199.80.  Charlestown  was  divided  into  six  school  districts  in 

*Counting  attendance  districts  in  towns  not  actually  divided  into  school  districts. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE   SYSTEM.  95 

1828.  East  Greenwich  appointed  a  school  committee  in  1828, 
divided  the  town  into  five  districts,  and  conducted  a  three 
months  school  in  each  district,  at  the  expense  of  the  town 
beyond  the  money  received  fiom  the  state.  In  1829  the  town 
voted  to  appropriate  $100  for  each  district  which  built  a  school- 
house.  In  1831  application  to  the  General  Assembly  was  made 
for  authority  to  build  schoolhouses  in  all  districts  at  the  expense 
of  the  town;  granted  in  1832.  The  schoolhouses  were  erected 
at  an  expense  to  the  town  of  approximately  $1500  for  five 
schoolhouses,  individuals  contributing  beyond  the  appropria- 
tion. Parents  of  scholars  were  required  to  furnish  wood  for 
fuel  and  to  board  the  teacher,  though  the  very  poor  were 
excused  from  all  burdens.  Glocester  voted,  in  1828,  to  raise  by 
taxation  an  amount  for  school  purposes  equal  to  the  money 
received  from  the  state.  The  Jefferson  School  Society  of 
Glocester  obtained  a  charter  from  the  General  Assembly  in 
October,  1828.  Hopkinton  appointed  a  school  committee, 
which  divided  the  town  into  11  districts  without  reference  to 
schoolhouses  already  built,  and  elected  teachers  for  each  district. 
In  1829  Hopkinton  was  ordered  by  the  General  Assembly  to 
provide  schoolhouses  on  penalty  of  forfeiting  its  share  of  the 
state  appropriation.  Johnston  appointed  a  school  committee, 
districted  the  town  and  located  schoolhouse  sites.  Middle- 
town,  in  1829,  voted  a  tax  of  $119  for  school  support,  to  supple- 
ment the  state  money.  Newport  continued  its  free  public 
schools,  already  established.  By  special  act  of  the  General 
Assembly  Newport  was  permitted  to  expend  its  share  of  the 
state  school  money  for  completing  the  town  schoolhouse  and 
supporting  another  school.  North  Kingstown  elected  a  school 
committee  of  15  members.  The  town  was  divided  into  10 
districts,  in  which  schools  were  kept  12  weeks.  The  state 
school  money  was  supplemented  by  a  town  appropriation  equal 
in  amount,  and  the  school  committee  apportioned  the  total 
amount  available  amongst  the  districts  in  proportion  to  actual 


96  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

attendance.  Providence  received  permission  to  raise  by  taxa- 
tion for  school  purposes  any  amount  approved  by  the  freemen, 
unhampered  by  the  restriction  imposed  by  the  school  act.  The 
free  school  system  was  reorganized  and  improved  as  described 
in  later  paragraphs.  Warwick  appointed  a  school  committee 
and  supplemented  the  state  appropriation.  One  district  in 
Warwick  and  one  in  Cranston  were  united  by  special  act  of  the 
General  Assembly  in  1828  under  a  joint  school  committee  as 
Pawtuxet  school  district;  the  union  was  discontinued  after  a 
short  trial,  the  law  being  repealed  in  1832.  Westerly,  in  1830, 
was  authorized  to  build  and  repair  schoolhouses  at  town  ex- 
pense. The  list  here  is  suggestive  rather  than  exhaustive. 
School  committee  and  town  records  are  in  such  condition  that  a 
complete  statement  may  not  be  collected  from  them. 

REORGANIZATION  IN  PROVIDENCE. 

In  Providence  a  reorganization  of  the  public  schools  occurred 
contemporaneously  with  the  new  state  movement.  It  needs 
little  thought  to  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  establishment 
of  free  schools  in  Newport,  the  enactment  of  the  school  law  of 
1828,  and  the  marked  advance  in  Providence  all  resulted  from 
the  operation  of  the  same  general  social  force.  Elsewhere  it 
produced  a  beginning;  in  Providence,  where  a  beginning  had 
been  made  years  before,  it  caused  a  revival  and  an  advance. 
The  advance  in  Providence  was  easier  to  accomplish  than  the 
beginning  in  other  towns  elsewhere,  and  it  attained  a  some- 
what earlier  start. 

The  town  council  and  school  committee,  in  1826,  requested 
schoolmasters  to  report  "their  opinions  whether  any  improve- 
ment may  be  made  in  the  mode  of  instruction,  and  if  so,  to  give 
their  views  of  such  improvement  in  the  art  of  writing  among 
the  scholars  of  the  several  public  schools."  In  the  same  year 
new  textbooks  were  approved.  A  school  for  small  children, 
under  a  woman  teacher,  was  opened  in  1827.  It  was  resolved 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  97 

on  January  24,  1828,  that  Francis  Wayland,  President  of  Brown 
University,  Thomas  F.  Waterman  and  William  T.  Grinnell  be 
"requested  and  directed  to  visit  all  the  schools  under  the  care 
of  the  common  council,  report  the  books  used  in  each  school,  the 
studies  pursued,  the  age  at  which  the  .scholars  are  admitted,  the 
average  amount  of  absence,  and  whatever  else  may  seem  to 
them  important,  and  suggest  such  alterations  and  amendment 
in  the  general  system  of  instruction,  and  such  regulations  for  the 
general  government  of  the  schools  as  they  may  deem  expedient." 

Wayland's  Report. — The  following  extracts  from  the  report 
of  the  committee  show  the  trend  of  this  important  school  docu- 
ment, drawn  by  Francis  Wayland,  and  indicate  reasons  for 
dissatisfaction  with  the  public  schools  of  the  period': 

"There  should  be  furnished  a  number  of  schools  sufficient  to 
accommodate  all  who  wish  to  avail  themselves  of  their  advan- 
tages. Everyone  sees  the  injustice  of  taxing  the  whole  com- 
munity to  support  one  or  two  schools,  to  which  not  more  than 
one-tenth  of  the  whole  number  of  children  can  find  admittance. 
The  same  injustice  will  evidently  occur  if  the  number  of  scholars 
imposed  upon  a  teacher  be  so  great  as  to  render  his  instruction 
of  so  little  value  that  a  large  portion  of  the  community  is  obliged 
to  resort  to  private  schools.  The  same  principle  would  dictate 
that  there  be  established  various  grades  of  schools  suited  to  the 
wants  of  the  public.  If  there  be  but  one  description  of  schools, 
it  must  either  be  so  elevated  that  many  of  the  parents  cannot 
prepare  their  children  to  enter  it,  or  else  so  elementary  that 
none  would  avail  themselves  of  its  advantages  for  any  con- 
siderable length  of  time,  or  else  everything  of  necessity  would 
be  so  imperfectly  taught  that  a  very  small  portion  would  be 
benefited.  In  either  case  but  a  small  portion  of  the  community 
would  receive  the  benefit  of  that  provision,  which  all  were  taxed 
to  support. 

"  It  may  here  be  properly  suggested  whether  equity  does  not 
demand  that  the  system  of  public  education  in  this  town  should 
make  provision  for  at  least  one  school  of  high  character,  a  school 
which  should  provide  instruction  in  all  that  is  necessary  to  a 
finished  education.  If  it  be  said  that  such  a  school  would  be  of 
advantage  only  to  the  rich,  it  may  be  answered,  as  the  rich 
contribute  in  an  equal  proportion  to  education,  why  should  not 
they  be  entitled  to  a  portion  of  the  benefit.  But  it  is  far  from 
being  the  case  that  such  a  school  would  be  only  for  the  rich. 
It  would  be  as  much  a  public  school,  as  open  to  all,  and  as  much 


98  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND.  i 

under  the  government  of  the  public  as  any  other.  But  it  would 
evidently  be  of  most  peculiar  advantage  to  the  middling  classes, 
and  the  poor.  Such  an  education's  we  propose  the  rich  man 
can  give,  and  will  give  to  his  son  by  sending  him  to  private 
schools.  But  the  man  in  moderate  circumstances  cannot  afford 
to  incur  the  heavy  expenses  of  a  first-rate  school,  and  if  no  such 
provision  be  made,  the  education  of  his  children  must  be  re- 
stricted to  the  ordinary  acquisition  of  a  little  more  than  reading 
and  writing.*  With  such  a  school  as  we  have  contemplated, 
he  would  be  enabled  to  give  his  child  an  education  which  would 
qualify  him  for  distinction  in  any  kind  of  business. 

"And,  lastly,  the  principle  of  equity  to  which  we  have  alluded 
would  dictate  that  the  public  schools  of  every  description  should 
be  well  and  skillfully  taught.  .  .  . 

"  The  schools  now  number  on  their  books  as  many  pupils  as 
can  receive  advantage  from  the  labors  of  the  present  instructors. 
Yet  it  will  not,  we  presume,  be  denied  that  a  very  considerable 
portion  of  the  children  about  our  streets  attend  no  school 
whatever.  It  would,  therefore,  seem  proper  that  the  school 
committee,  joined  with  such  persons  as  the  town  council  may 
add,  be  empowered  to  increase  the  means  of  instruction  from 
time  to  time  as  the  wants  of  the  population  may  require.  But 
it  has  appeared  to  your  committee  that  one  part  of  this  object 
may  be  accomplished  immediately,  and  with  very  little  addi- 
tional expense,  by  establishing  a  sufficient  number  of  primary 
schools  in  different  parts  of  the  town.  The  effect  of  these  will 
be  to  provide  a  grade  of  instruction  as  much  needed  by  the 
public  as  any  other,  to  elevate  the  character  of  the  grammar 
schools,  and  to  enable  the  teachers  of  these  schools  to  devote  their 
attention  to  a  larger  portion  of  those  who  are  prepared  for  in- 
struction in  the  more  advanced  branches  of  education.  .  .  . 

"If  in  addition  to  these  two  grades  of  schools  a  single  school 
for  the  whole  town  should  be  established,  of  a  more  elevated 
character,  to  enter  which  it  shall  be  necessary  to  have  been 
proficient  in  all  the  studies  of  the  grammar  school,  and  in  which 
should  be  taught  a  more  perfect  and  scientific  knowledge  of 
geography,  bookkeeping,  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  naviga- 
tion, moral  and  natural  philosophy,  natural  history,  the  elements 
of  political  economy,  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  we  think  that  our  system 
of  education  would  be  such  as  to  do  honor  to  the  public  spirit 
of  this  commercial  and  manufacturing  metropolis,  but  not  at 
all  beyond  what  is  demanded  by  the  advanced  intelligence  of 
the  age.  Whether  a  high  school,  of  somewhat  the  same  char- 
acter, for  girls  might  not  also  be  desirable  and  expedient  would 
be  a  matter  for  future  consideration. 

*One  argument  for  the  modern  public  high  school  and  the  state  college  could  not  be  better 
stated. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  99 

"Granting  that  if  a  teacher  were  limited  to  20  or  30  pupils,  he 
would  teach  better  by  personal  instruction  than  upon  the 
monitorial  system — what  has  this  decision  to  do  with  the  case? 
Are  we  prepared  to  establish  such  schools?  Are  there  any 
such  public  schools?  The  plain  fact  is  that  we  must  con- 
struct a  system  upon  the  supposition  that  there  will  be  from 
150  to  200  scholars  to  a  teacher,  or  to  a  teacher  and  an  assist- 
ant. Now  for  such  schools  as  these  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
that  the  monitorial  system  is  preferable.  So  far  as  our  obser- 
vation has  gone,  we  frankly  declare  that  the  proficiency  of 
scholars,  under  the  same  circumstances  in  other  respects,  when 
taught  under  the  monitorial  system,  has  been  decidedly  superior 
to  that  of  those  taught  upon  the  common  system.  But  although 
these  have  been  the  views  of  your  committee,  they  are  far  from 
recommending  that  the  monitorial  system  be  at  once  adopted 
in  all  our  grammar  schools.  .  .  . 

"In  closing  this  report  your  committee  feel  obliged  to  assure 
their  fellow  citizens  that  it  is  utterly  in  vain  to  hope  for  a 
valuable  course  of  public  instruction  without  a  thorough  and 
active  system  of  supervision  on  the  part  of  the  community. 
Unless  the  schools  be  visited  frequently  and  examined  thor- 
oughly, and  unless  the  school  committee  determine  to  give  to 
this  subject  all  the  attention  and  reflection  and  labor  necessary 
to  carry  the  system  of  education  to  as  great  a  degree  of  per- 
fection as  the  case  admits,  everything  will  be  fruitless.  With- 
out this  every  plan  of  education  will  fail,  and  with  it  almost  any 
may  be  made  to  succeed.  If  a  sufficient  number  of  gentlemen 
can  be  found,  who  will  devote  to  the  interests  of  the  rising 
generation  a  half -day  every  month,  and  who  will  so  combine 
their  labor  as  to  produce  the  effect  of  a  particular  and  general 
supervision,  all  that  the  most  benevolent  could  wish  can  be 
accomplished.  If  such  men  cannot  be  found,  nothing  of  value 
will  ever  be  done." 

The  faults  which  the  committee  found  were  insufficient 
schools  to  accommodate  the  school  population;  inadequate 
instruction,  largely  due  to  an  insufficient  number  of  teachers; 
want  of  grading;  want  of  supervision.  The  report  recom- 
mended: 1.  Division  of  the  school  committee  into  primary 
and  grammar  school  committees,  which,  with  the  town  council, 
should  have  general  charge  of  all  public  schools.  2.  The  estab- 
lishment of  primary  schools  for  young  children.  3.  A  test  of 
the  monitorial  system  in  one  grammar  school.  4.  Establish- 
ment of  a  public  high  school  for  boys. 


100  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

Reorganization. — In  June,  1828,  the  school  government  was 
reorganized  under  the  school  act,  and  the  freemen  resumed  the 
election  of  the  school  committee,  which,  until  Providence 
became  a  city,  in  1832,  was  no  longer  under  control  of  the  town 
council.  Asa  Messer,  who  had  resigned  the  presidency  of 
Brown  University  in  1826,  became  President  of  the  school 
committee.  Upon  petition  of  the  town,  in  1828,  the  General 
Assembly  exempted  Providence  from  the  restriction  upon  taxa- 
tion imposed  by  the  school  law.  Had  Providence  been  limited 
to  raising  twice  its  share  in  the  state  school  appropriation,  the 
entire  amount  available  for  school  purposes  would  have  been 
less  than  the  town  had  been  spending  annually  for  school  sup- 
port for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  limitation  not  only  would 
prevent  progress,  but  it  threatened  seriously  the  continuance 
of  the  schools  already  established.  The  obstacle  removed,  the 
schools  were  reorganized  on  the  plan  recommended  by  Francis 
Wayland  and  his  colleagues,  except  that  the  opening  of  a  high 
school  was  postponed  indefinitely.  Primary  schools,  taught  by 
women  were  opened,  and  a  separate  school  for  colored  children 
was  established  in  the  Brick  schoolhouse  on  Meeting  street. 
The  scale  of  wages  for  grammar  school  teachers  was  continued 
at  $500  per  annum  for  masters  and  $250  for  ushers,  while  the 
women  teachers  in  the  new  primary  schools  received  $175  per 
year,  or  $3.36^  per  week.  The  teacher  could  collect  the  half- 
cent,  for  at  that  time  a  copper  coin  of  that  denomination  was  in 
circulation. 

New  rules  and  regulations  adopted  by  the  school  committee 
preserve  the  best  available  description  of  the  new  grading  of 
schools.  The  branches  taught  in  the  primary  schools  were 
reading  and  spelling,  and  the  books  used  were  the  New  York 
Primer,  the  first  and  second  parts  of  Alden's  Spelling  Book, 
Easy  Lessons  and  the  New  Testament.  The  primary  schools 
admitted  children  of  both  sexes  four  years  old  and  upward. 
Upon  reaching  seven  years  of  age  and  attaining  ability  to  read 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM. 


101 


fluently  in  the  New  Testament,  after  examination  by  a  visiting 
committee  of  the  school  committee,  the  child  was  promoted  to 
the  higher  grade  of  school,  called  a  "writing"  school. 

In  the  writing  schools  the  branches  taught  were  spelling, 
reading,  the  use  of  capital  letters  and  punctuation,  writing, 
arithmetic,  the  rudiments  of  bookkeeping,  English  grammar, 
geography  and  "epistolary  composition."  The  textbooks  used 
were  Alden's  Spelling  Book,  the  New  Testament,  the  American 
Preceptor,  the  Brief  Remarker,  Murray's  Sequel  to  the  English 
Reader,  Smith's  Arithmetic,  Murray's  Abridgement  of  English 
Grammar  and  Woodbridge's  Small  Geography.  All  the  prim- 
ary school  textbooks  except  the  New  Testament  were  super- 
seded in  1830  by  Oliver  Angell's  series  of  Union  textbooks, 
Nos.  1,  2  and  3,  which  were  sold  to  pupils  for  8  cents,  14  cents 
and  17  cents,  respectively.  In  writing  schools  Angell's  Unions 
Nos.  4  and  5  succeeded  Alden's  Spelling  Book,  the  American 
Preceptor  and  the  Brief  Remarker.  Oliver  Angell  was  master 
of  a  Providence  writing  school,  and  the  Union  textbooks  were 
prepared  especially  for  use  in  the  schools  of  the  town.  They 
were  adopted  in  many  other  Rhode  Island  towns. 

The  report  of  the  quarterly  visitation  of  schools  for  May  29, 
1830,  showed  an  attendance  of  1,257  pupils,  a  gain  of  25  per 
cent,  over  1828.  The  report  follows: 


^VBITING  SCHOOLS. 

PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. 

District. 

Teacher. 

i. 

o 

ft) 

JO 

.3 

"3 
"o 
H 

I 
.2 
Q 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

Teacher. 

>> 
•  o 

« 

o 

3 

"o 

H 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 

Mr.  Angell  

68 
48 
86 
80 
60 

73 

62 
86 
62 
68 

141 
110 
172 
142 
128 

Miss  Pratt 

68 

50 

118 
40 
116 

78 
125 

87 

Mr.  Baker  

Miss  Church 

Mr.  Lee  

Mrs  Davis 

66 
37 
79 
55 

50 
41 
46 
32 

Mr.  Peters. 

Miss  Lockwood.  . 
Miss  Fisher 

Mr.  Ferris  

Totals  

Miss  Delano  
Totals  

342 

351 

693 

305 

219 

564 

102  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

Providence  was  incorporated  as  a  city  in  1832,  and  under  the 
charter  the  election  of  the  school  committee  passed  from  the 
freemen  to  the  city  council.  The  fuel  tax  was  abolished  in 
1833,  the  committee  reporting  that  payment  of  it  could  be 
enforced  only  by  excluding  delinquents  from  school,  and  that 
such  a  course  seemed  inconsistent  with  "the  spirit  of  the  law, 
or  the  great  object  of  it."  The  schools  of  Providence  thus 
became  absolutely  free  schools. 

A  RECORD  OF  STATEWIDE  IMPROVEMENT. 

The  process  of  state  school  organization  under  the  act  of  1828 
extended  no  further  than  the  distribution  of  financial  assistance. 
The  law  made  no  provision  for  the  collection  of  school  statistics; 
the  only  reports  of  the  operation  of  the  law  required  by  the 
General  Assembly  were  certificates  from  town  councils  that  the 
state  school  money  had  been  expended  for  school  support,  as  a 
condition  precedent  to  further  participation  in  the  apportion- 
ment thereof,  and  an  annual  report  by  the  General  Treasurer 
of  the  receipts  of  revenue  appropriated  for  school  purposes. 
Consequently  there  are  no  public  statistics  available  by  which 
to  measure  progress  or  retrogression.  There  has  been  preserved, 
however,  the  report  of  a  survey  made  in  1831  by  Oliver  Angell, 
author  of  the  Union  textbooks,  which  was  undertaken  under 
auspices  and  circumstances  which  warrant  its  acceptance .  as 
made  without  prejudice,  although  not  strictly  accurate.  In 
May,  1831,  President  Wayland  presided  at  a  public  meeting  of 
gentlemen  interested  in  the  cause  of  education,  who  assembled 
in  the  Town  House  in  Providence.  It  was  resolved  to  appoint 
two  committees,  one  to  take  into  consideration  the  general 
subject  of  lyceums  and  similar  institutions  designed  to  promote 
the  cause  of  popular  education,  and  to  report  generally  thereon 
at  an  adjournment  of  the  meeting,  and  the  second  committee 
to  take  into  consideration  the  present  state  of  schools  and  to 
report  generally  thereon,  and  also  what  improvements  if  any 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.        .   103 

can  be  made  in  the  description  and  instruction  thereof.  To 
the  first  committee  Messrs.  Farley,  Webb  and  Greene  were 
appointed,  and  to  the  second,  Messrs.  Angell,  Curtis  and  Harts- 
horn. 'At  an  adjourned  meeting  Professor  Alexis  Caswell, 
afterward  President  of  Brown  University,  presided.  The 
report  of  the  second  committee,  prepared  by  Oliver  Angell,  was 
received  and  ordered  printed  and  distributed.*  The  most 
valuable  part  of  the  report  was  a  table,  which  showed  for  each 
town  in  the  state  the  number  of  public  and  private  schools,  the 
numbers  of  pupils  attending  public  and  private  schools,  the 
amounts  appropriated  by  the  several  towns  to  supplement  the 
state  apportionment  of  public  school  money,  the  length  of  the 
school  year  in  each  town,  and  for  the  state  the  total  numbers  of 
men  and  women  teachers  in  public  and  private  schools.  The 
figures  in  the  following  table  have  been  taken  from  Oliver 
Angell's  table,  with  the  exception  of  the  number  of  schools  in 
each  town  in  1828,  a  column  which  has  been  added  for  purposes 
of  comparison  by  which  to  measure  the  progress  made  under 
the  state  school  law  : 

*The  report  is  in  the  Rider  Collection. 


104 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 


Schools,  1828 

Public  schools, 
1831, 

Private  schools, 
1831. 

Scholars,  Public 
schools. 

Scholars,  Private 
schools, 

Town  appropria- 
tion. 

Harrington  

3 

3 

113 

Bristol  ............. 

19 

3 

11 

275 

240 

$500 

Burrillville  

19 

16 

16 

800 

500 

300 

Charlestown  

Q 

8 

4 

500 

80 

Coventry  .  .  

?1 

18 

900 

300 

Cranston  

16 

11 

550 

500 

Cumberland  

13 

17 

17 

1,200 

1,000 

500 

East  Greenwich            .          .... 

10 

6 

3 

250 

80 

100 

Exeter  

3 

13 

390 

Foster  

15 

IP 

1,197 

Glocester  

15 

17 

17 

510 

400 

550 

Hopkinton  

q 

1? 

q 

550 

225 

100 

Jamestown                                     .  . 

3 

9 

100 

Johnston.        ... 

q 

11 

400 

366 

Little  Compton 

8 

7 

7 

245 

175 

Middletown.  .          ...             

5 

5 

5 

210 

155 

Newport  

9 

2 

39 

400 

900 

800 

New  Shoreham     .                         .  . 

4 

3 

100 

North  Kingstown                          .  . 

6 

1? 

8 

550 

250 

North  Providence  

11 

8 

10 

400 

300 

574 

Portsmouth  . 

4 

8 

3 

360 

60 

Providence  

8 

11 

56 

1,150 

1,682 

5,000 

Richmond  .              

9 

q 

5 

225 

100 

Scituate  

10 

16 

?0 

680 

550 

300 

Smithfield  :  

17 

?4 

2,049 

600 

South  Kingstown 

7 

1? 

4 

360 

200 

Tiverton  

10 

1? 

90 

600 

400 

Warren  

17 

4 

Q 

230 

200 

350 

Warwick 

16 

13 

1,040. 

500 

Westerly  .  .  .  

6 

11 

8 

400 

250 

150 

West  Greenwich     ... 

11 

11 

5 

300 

100 

Totals  

?q4 

3?3 

?6q 

17,034 

7,847 

11,490 

The  length  of  the  school  year  was  12  months  in  public  and 
private  schools  in  Providence  and  Newport,  and  12  months  in 
private  schools  in  Bristol.  The  public  school  year  was  4  months 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  105 

in  Coventry,  Middletown  and  Warwick;  3^  months  in  Crans- 
ton, Hopkinton,  Scituate  and  Westerly;  3  months  in  Harrington, 
Charlestown,  East  Greenwich,  Foster,  Glocester,  Jamestown, 
Johnston,  North  Providence,  Richmond,  Smithfield  and  West 
Greenwich;  2%  months  in  Exeter  and  North  Kingstown;  2l/i 
months  in  Burrillville;  2  months  in  Cumberland,  New  Shore- 
ham,  Portsmouth,  South  Kingstown  and  Tiverton,  and  1  month 
in  Little  Compton.  In  Bristol  two  schools  taught  by  men  were 
kept,  respectively,  4  and  12  months,  while  one  woman  taught 
school  12  months;  in  Warren  two  of  the  four  schools  were  kept 
3  months,  and  the  other  two  12  months.  The  average  length 
of  the  school  year,  exclusive  of  12  months  schools,  was  three 
months.  In  most  of  the  country  towns  private  schools  were 
public  schools  continued  by  subscription.  Oliver  Angell  sum- 
marized his  table  as  follows  : 

Whole  number  of  public  schools  in  the  state 323 

Whole  number  of  scholars  taught  in  them 17,034 

Number  of  male  teachers,  318;  female  teachers,  147; 

total 465 

Number  of  schools  continued  through  the  year 20 

Amount  appropriated  by  the  towns  for  support  of 

schools. $11,490 

Amount  drawn  from  the  state  treasury 10,000 

Total  amount  expended  for  support  of  public  schools.  21,490 
Private  schools,  whole  year;  male  teachers  30;  female, 

38 118 

Number  of  scholars  in  them  (exclusive  of  Friends' 

School) 3,403 

Estimated  tuition  at  $20  per  year  per  scholar $68,060 

Estimated  tuition  in  other  private  schools,  $3  per 

scholar 13,315 

Total  estimated  expenditure  for  private  school  tuition. .  81 ,375 

Annual  expense  of  keeping  schools  (public  and  private) .  102,865 

Significant  Figures. — The  figures  in  the  table  yield  other 
information.  If  from  the  total  number  of  private  schools  in 
1831,  private  schools  in  Providence  and  Newport  are  omitted 
(as  they  were  in  1828),  the  number  of  private  schools  in  the 
state  becomes  181,  and  the  total  number  of  schools,  public  and 


106  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

private,  is  then  504.  Compared  with  294  in  1828,  a  substantial 
gain  is  disclosed,  even  when  discounts  are  made  for  private 
schools  that  were  merely  continuations  of  public  schools. 
Where  private  schools  were  continuations  of  public  schools,  the 
length  of  the  rural  school  year  must  be  increased  accordingly. 
The  total  attendance  at  public  and  private  schools  may  not  be 
calculated  accurately  from  the  table;  that  it  exceeded  20,000 
seems  probable,  for  to  the  17,034  public  school  pupils  may  be 
added  the  scholars  attending  whole-year  private  schools,  and 
some  part  of  those  attending  other  private  schools. 

Significant  indices  of  improvement  are  found  in  these  facts, 
derived  from  the  table  : 

1.  The  total  number  of  schools  had  increased  in  four  years 
from  294  to  504  (exclusive  in  both  instances  of  private  schools 
in  Newport  and  Providence) . 

2.  Two  or  more  public  schools  were  kept  in  every  town  in 
the  state  in  1831. 

'  3.  The  number  of  children  receiving  instruction  at  public 
expense  had  increased  from  less  than  1400  to  more  than  ten 
times  that  many.* 

4.  More  than  half  the  .towns  in  the  state,  17  of  31,  made 
appropriations  in  1831  to  supplement  the  state  school  money. 

5.  The  total  of  town  appropriations  exceeded  the  state 
appropriation. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  immediate  effect  of  the 
school  act  of  1828  had  been  stimulating  and  beneficial. 

MORE  SCHOOL  LEGISLATION. 

The  most  important  school  legislation  of  the  decade  following 
1828  was  the  appropriation  of  the  income  of  the  United  States 

deposit  fund  to  school  support.     In  1839  a  codified  school  law 

•> 

was  enacted.  Meanwhile  almost  every  session  of  the  General 
Assembly  was  productive  of  school  legislation,  for  the  most  part 
special  acts  intended  to  aid  towns  in  attaining  full  benefit  of  the 
law  of  1828. 

*See  the  criticism  of  Angell's  report  below  in  this  chapter. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE   SYSTEM.  107 

A  summary  of  special  legislation  follows  :  Providence  was 
exempted  from  the  restriction  on  taxation  for  school  purposes 
imposed  by  the  act  of  1828.  Newport  was  authorized  to  apply 
state  school  money  and  the  income  of  school  funds  to  building 
schoolhouses.  East  Greenwich  and  Westerly  were  authorized 
to  levy  taxes  for  and  to  build  schoolhouses  at  the  expense  of  the 
towns.  School  districts  in  Cumberland,  Burrillville,  North 
Providence,  Richmond  and  Smithfield  were  permitted  to  levy 
taxes  for  and  to  build  district  schoolhouses.  Hopkinton, 
Richmond  and  Exeter  were  ordered  to  provide  schoolhouses. 
Bitter  controversies  arising  in  Hopkinton  and  Richmond  from 
school  taxation  and  the  delineation  of  district  boundaries,  were 
carried  to  the  General  Assembly  for  adjustment.  Smithfield 
received  permission  to  increase  its  school  committee  to  30 
members.  Two  union  school  districts  were  established,  one  at 
Pawtuxet  in  Cranston-Warwick,  and  the  other  in  Richmond- 
South  Kingstown.  The  former  was  abolished  in  1832. 

General  school  legislation  permitted  school  committees  to 
send  children  to  schools  in  adjacent  towns  if  more  convenient; 
increased  the  maximum  membership  of  school  committees  from 
21  to  30;  changed  the  basis  of  apportionment  of  state  school 
money  from  population  under  16  to  population  under  15  first, 
and  again  to  white  population  under  15,  with  a  special  ratio  to 
reduce  the  census  figures  for  colored  population  to  the  same 
basis  as  white.  The  state  in  1838  inaugurated  an  annual  appro- 
priation of  $125  to  maintain  a  school  for  the  members  of  the 
Narragansett  Indian  tribe  in  Charlestown. 

THE  CRITICAL  YEARS  FROM  1828  TO  1839. 

The  beginning  of  a  series  of  state-town  reports  of  school  con- 
ditions was  forecasted  in  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  General 
Assembly  in  1836,  directing  town  clerks  to  report  the  number, 
age,  sex  and  pecuniary  condition  of  deaf  and  dumb  persons  and 
the  extent  of  their  education,  and  also  the  number  of  c  hildren 


108  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

who  attend  town  public  schools  and  the  amount  of  school 
money  received  from  the  state.  To  the  inquiry  concerning 
attendance  nineteen  towns  responded,  reporting  a  total  attend- 
ance of  12,350  children  at  town  public  schools. 

By  act  of  1838  school  committees  were  required  to  report 
annually  before  the  first  Wednesday  in  May  the  amount  of 
school  money  received  from  the  state;  the  amount  of  school 
money  raised  by  the  town;  the  number  of  school  districts  in  the 
town  and  the  number  of  schools  kept  in  each  district;  the 
amount  of  money  spent  in  each  school  district  for  fuel,  furniture, 
incidental  expenses  and  instruction;  the  number  of  children, 
male  and  female,  attending  school  and  the  average  attendance; 
the  time  and  season  of  keeping  schools;  the  number,  names 
and  salaries  of  teachers;  the  branches  taught  and  textbooks 
used  in  schools.  The  Secretary  of  State  was  ordered  to  furnish 
blanks  for  the  reports  required,  and  towns  failing  to  report 
forfeited  the  right  to  participate  in  the  distribution  of  state 
school  money.  Under  this  act  and  the  general  school  law  of 
1839,  in  which  it  was  codified,  statistics  were  collected  from 
every  town  in  the  state  from  1839  to  1845,  when  the  Barnard 
school  law  made  other  provision  for  town  school  reports. 

In  the  following  table  attendance  records  for  1839,  1840  and 
1841  are  presented,  with  the  report  for  19  towns  in  1836  and 
Oliver  Angell's  attendance  report  for  1831  : 


ORGANIZATION  OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM. 
SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  RECORDS. 


109 


1831. 

1836. 

1839. 

1840. 

1841. 

Barrington       

113 

194 

141 

131 

Bristol  

275 

450 

320 

474 

485 

Burrillville                  

800 

698 

447 

588 

537 

Charlestown 

500 

246 

283 

265 

Coventry    

900 

545 

470 

653 

622 

Cranston        .        ...                   

550 

604 

407 

624 

675 

Cumberland     

1,200 

1,650 

412 

1,088 

1,395 

East  Greenwich  

250 

450 

209 

240 

244 

Exeter  

390 

284 

389 

389 

Foster  

1,197 

600 

619 

619 

633 

Glocester  

510 

655 

384 

602 

621 

Hopkinton   

550 

574 

478 

506 

522 

Jamestown   .  .  .  

100 

30 

53 

94 

57 

Johnston          ...               . 

400 

333 

500 

434 

Little  Compton  *  

215 

530 

522 

325 

Middletown     

210 

173 

200 

126 

190 

Newport   

400 

324 

265 

636 

532 

New  Shoreham  

100 

200 

394 

518 

North  Kingstown  

550 

700 

479 

481 

562 

North  Providence   ....                 ... 

400 

463 

508 

671 

Portsmouth      

360 

255 

245 

326 

448 

Providence   

1,150 

1,456 

1,753 

2,020 

3,396 

Richmond  

•    225 

219 

273 

383 

Scituate  

680 

734 

769 

886 

Smithfield  

2,049 

1,213 

1,006 

1,134 

1,658 

South  Kingstown  

360 

645 

750 

750 

Tiverton  

600 

349 

968 

522 

Warren  

230 

225 

133 

129 

164 

Warwick  

1,040 

997 

746 

1,261 

1,357 

Westerly   

400 

741 

477 

427 

730 

West  Greenwich  

300 

253 

327 

291 

Totals  

17,034 

12,350 

13,748 

17,752 

20,253 

The  12  towns  that  made  no  report  in  1836  reported  4450 
pupils  in  1839,  and  were  credited  with  4283  in  1831.  If  4367, 
the  number  midway  between  4283  and  4450,  be  selected  as  the 
probable  attendance  in  these  towns  in  1836,  the  state  total  for 


110  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

that  year  becomes  16,717,  and  the  range  of  attendance  totals 
is  17,034  for  1831,  16,717  for  1836,  13,784  for  1839,  17,752  for 
1840,  20,253  for  1841.  The  increases  in  1840  over  1839,  and  in 
1841  over  1840,  appear  entirely  consistent  with  growth  of 
population  and  the  maiked  increase  in  money  available  for 
school  improvement  after  1838  by  distribution  of  the  income 
of  the  United  States  deposit  money.  Half  the  increase  in  1841 
over  1840  was  in  Providence,  where  a  reorganization  and  im- 
provement of  schools  in  1839-40  resulted  immediately  in  a 
larger  enrollment  of  pupils.  But  the  apparent  decreases  from 
1831  to  1836,  and  from  1836  to  1839,  are  inconsistent  with  growth 
of  population  and  increased  town  appropriations  for  support  of 
schools.  A  decline  of  interest  in  public  schools  after  the 
enthusiasm  of  beginning  must  be  serious  in  order  to  offset  the 
influence  of  the  two  factors  mentioned  and  produce  the  decline 
that  the  totals  indicate.  Three  questions  are  suggested  : 

1.  Are  the  figures  accurate? 

2.  Was  there  a  decline  of  interest  due  to  dissatisfaction  with 
the  school  system? 

3.  Was  there  an  external  social  condition  or  cause  for  poor 
attendance  at  school? 

1.  Are  the  figures  accurate?  Between  the  figures  for  1836 
and  those  for  1839  preference  for  probable  accuracy  must  lie 
with  the  latter,  because  they  were  reported  by  the  school  com- 
mittees of  the  several  towns,  whereas  the  figures  for  1836  were 
returned  by  town  clerks,  who  had  no  intimate  connection  with 
town  school  systems.  The  figures  for  1836  from  Bristol,  Bunill- 
ville,  Cumberland,  East  Greenwich,  Glocester,  North  Kingstown, 
and  perhaps  Warren  and  Westerly  are  inconsistent  with  both 
Angell's  report  and  the  school  committees'  reports  for  1839  and 
subsequently.  The  probable  error,  roughly  calculated  by 
comparison  of  reports,  is  close  to  2000,  which,  if  deducted,  would 
reduce  the  probable  total  attendance  for  the  state  in  1836  to 
less  than  15,000,  say  14,900. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE   SYSTEM.  Ill 

As  for  Oliver  AngelPs  figures  for  1831,  those  for  Burrillville, 
Coventry,  Cranston,  East  Greenwich,  Jamestown,  North  Provi- 
dence and  Tiverton  appear  to  be  estimates  reached  by  multi- 
plying the  number  of  public  schools  by  50  ;*  those  for  Exeter, 
Glocester  and  South  Kingstown,  estimates  reached  by  multi- 
plying the  number  of  public  schools  by  30;  while  those  for 
Burrillville,  Charlestown,  Coventry,  Foster  and  Smithfield 
appear  out  of  proportion  to  all  other  reports.  At  least  2500 
should  be  deducted  as  probable  error,  making  the  total  attend- 
ance for  1831,  14,500. 

With  the  caution  that  the  "corrected"  figures  for  1831  and 
1836  are  quite  as  much  estimates  and  as  likely  to  error  as  the 
figures  they  replace,  the  series  of  attendance  totals  becomes 
14,500  for  1831, 14,900  for  1836, 13,748  for  1839, 17,752  for  1840, 
and  20,253  for  1841.  Population  increased  not  quite  12  per 
cent,  between  1830  and  1840.  If  the  figures  in  the  table  are 
taken  as  accurate,  there  was  an  increase  in  school  attendance 
from  1831  to  1840  of  only  700  for  the  whole  state,  leaving  for 
explanation  a  drop  from  17,034  to  16,717  in  1836,  and  a  fall  to 
13,748  in  1839.  If  the  figures  as  corrected  are  taken  as  more 
nearly  indicating  actual  conditions,  then  there  was  a  period  of 
little  progress  from  1831  to  1839.  Either  hypothesis  and  con- 
clusion make  the  second  and  third  questions  relevant. 

2.  Was  there  a  decline  of  interest  due  to  dissatisfaction  with 
the  school  system?  The  most  complete  and  intimate  history 
of  a  Rhode  Island  town  school  system  preserved  is  that  of 
Providence.  The  free  schools  of  Providence  made  no  gain  in 
attendance  from  1800  to  1828;  the  attendance  increased  in  1828 
as  a  consequence  of  improvement  in  the  grading  of  schools,  and 
there  was  another  marked  gain  in  1840-41,  when  further  im- 
provement was  undertaken.  The  report  of  Francis  Wayland 
in  1828,  portions  of  which  have  been  quoted,  pointed  out  clearly 
that  the  free  schools  of  Providence  were  insufficient  to  accom- 

*Angell's  figures  are  printed  in  Chapter  II. 


112  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

modate  all  town  children  of  school  age;  that  the  instruction  was 
inefficient  because  of  the  large  number  of  pupils  assigned  to 
each  teacher;  that  the  schools  could  be  of  advantage  to  only 
a  small  portion  of  the  community,  because  they  must  inevitably, 
under  all  the  circumstances,  teach  only  a  narrow  content  well, 
or  an  extended  content  poorly. 

The  theory  that  a  cause  for  dissatisfaction  with  the  public 
schools  lay  in  the  schools  is  sustained  by  the  following  extract 
from  a  petition  addressed  to  the  city  council  of  Providence  by 
the  Providence  Association  of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers  in 

1837,  in  which  the  association  asked  for  improved  schools  : 

"Your  memorialists  have  been  struck  by  one  fact,  to  which  they 
would  respectfully  solicit  particular  attention.  It  has  been 
argued  by  some  (and  perhaps  the  argument  has  attracted  the 
consideration  of  your  honorable  body)  that  the  instruction  of 
youth  in  the  public  schools  is  a  heavy  tax  upon  the  middling 
classes,  without  an  adequate  return,  as  they  do  not  participate 
in  the  benefit  of  this  public  instruction.  This  argument,  which 
is  evidently  weighty  in  the  present  condition  of  these  schools, 
would  be  destroyed  if  they  were  raised  to  the  condition  desired 
by  your  memorialists.  Why  is  it  that  the  middling  classes  do 
not  become  participants  in  this  instruction?  There  is  evi- 
dently but  one  reason.  They  perceive  that  the  crowded  state 
of  the  schools  alone  would  prevent  proper  attention  to  the 
pupil;  and  they  are  aware  that  with  the  small  sum  which  the 
instructors  receive  it  is  difficult  to  procure  and  retain  the  ser- 
vices of  competent  persons  to  fill  the  station.  But  let  the 
schools  he  made  so  numerous  that  the  scholars  may  receive  as 
much  attention  as  they  do  in  the  private  schools,  and  let  the 
salaries  be  so  large  as  to  induce  men  of  equal  ability  to  take 
charge  of  them,  and  that  which  is  now  considered  a  tax,  would 
then  be  viewed  as  an  alleviation  of  one  of  the  heaviest  burdens 
put  upon  the  middling  classes." 

Thus  President  Wayland,  in  1828,  and  the  Providence  Asso- 
ciation of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers,  representing,  as  they 
said,  "a  large  portion  of  the  heads  of  families  of  the  city,"  in 

1838,  were  in  substantial  agreemenfin  the  reasons  they  assigned 
for   criticising  the   public    schools.     If  the  undisputed  facts 
warranted  such  criticism  of  Providence,  where  schools  were  kept 


ORGANIZATION   OF  A  STATE  SYSTEM.  113 

12  months  in  the  year  by  teachers  whose  tenure  was  secure  and 
continuous,  what  might  be  said  of  rural  towns  and  districts, 
where  the  average  school  term  was  three  months,  where  teachers' 
salaries  were  smaller  than  in  the  city,  where  local  municipal 
support  of  schools  was  less  generous,  where  there  must  be  a 
reorganization  and  a  fresh  beginning  every  winter,  whither  the 
schoolmaster  might  never  return  after  a  single  term?  There 
is  no  reason  to  believe  that  public  schools  in  Rhode  Island 
previous  to  1840  were  any  better  than  the  schools  which  Horace 
Mann  found  in  Massachusetts  in  1837,  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  the  average  Rhode  Island  school  of  the  period  was  inferior 
to  the  average  New  England  school  at  the  same  time. 

3.  Was  there  an  external  social  condition  or  cause  for  the  want 
of  increased  attendance  at  school?  The  first  cotton  spinning  in 
America  was  undertaken  by  Samuel  Slater  at  Pawtucket  in 
1790.  The  industry  advanced  slowly  in  its  earlier  years,  but 
experienced  a  rapid  development  after  the  invention  of  the 
cotton  gin,  and  in  Rhode  Island,  particularly  when  the  mer- 
chants of  the  state  turned  from  the  hazards  of  foreign  commerce 
to  the  safer  investment  in  factories  and  textile  machinery. 
The  wreck  of  the  Ann  and  Hope  on  Block  Island  in  1806,  and 
the  total  loss  of  the  good  ship  and  her  cargo,  and  all  the  profits 
of  a  year's  voyage,  marked  a  turning  point  in  the  economic 
history  of  Rhode  Island.  Compact  villages  grew  up  close  to 
the  new  factories  built  along  the  upper  reaches  of  the  turbulent 
rivers;  the  older  boys  and  girls  of  the  factory  villages  worked 
in  the  mills  instead  of  attending  schools.  Not  all  manufact- 
urers were  indifferent  to  this  condition.  Samuel  Slater  himself 
taught  a  secular  Sunday  school  for  children  at  Pawtucket.  Other 
manufacturers  erected  schoolhouses  near  their  factories,  but 
the  factories,  nevertheless,  in  the  absence  of  compulsory  attend- 
ance laws,  tended  to  lower  school  attendance.  The  industrial 
system  in  Rhode  Island  was  an  external  cause  for  stagnation  in 
school  attendance.  The  winter  school,  which  might  attract  the 


114  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

boys  and  girls  of  a  farming  community  in  the  months  when 
there  was  little  work  to  do  "about  the  place,"  was  beyond  the 
youthful  operative  in  the  factory,  who  worked  all  the  year 
around.  An  attempt  to  remedy  this  condition  was  made  in 
1840,  when  a  state  law  was  passed,  declaring  that  no  child  under 
twelve  years  of  age  should  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing 
establishment  unless  the  child  attended  for  three  of  the  twelve 
months  next  preceding  such  employment  some  public  or  private 
day  school  where  instruction  was  given  in  spelling,  reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic.  This  law  was  left  out  of  the  revision 
of  the  statutes  in  1844  with  all  other  school  laws,  in  anticipation 
of  the  enactment  of  a  new  school  law  to  be  drawn  by  Henry 
Barnard,  and  it  was  not  codified  in  the  revised  school  act  which 
Henry  Barnard  wrote  in  1844  and  which  the  General  Assembly 
passed  the  next  year.* 

The  years  between  1828  and  1839  were  critical  years  in  the 
history  of  Rhode  Island  schools.  The  school  act  of  1828  pro- 
duced improvement  immediately,  but  the  appropriation  of 
$10,000  annually  was  too  meagre  to  assure  continued  progress. 
Consequently  the  schools  maintained  under  the  act  of  1828, 
even  when  towns  supplemented  the  state  appropriation,  were 
not  of  such  a  character  as  to  attract  that  increasing  attendance 
which  is  the  surest  index  of  public  appreciation  and  satisfaction. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  growth  of  manufacturing  which 
operated  as  an  external  factor  in  decreasing  school  attendance. 
But  that  the  schools  themselves  were  at  fault  seems  to  be 
proved  by  the  advance  of  nearly  50  per  cent,  in  enrollment  of 
pupils  which  followed  immediately  the  increased  state  appro- 
priations under  the  acts  of  1836  and  1839.  More  money  then 
meant  more  schools,  more  scholars  and  better  schools,  as  it  has 
since. 

*The  original  draft  of  the  Barnard  act  includes  this  law. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  115 

MORE  MONEY  AND  IMPROVEMENT. 

The  General  Assembly,  in  October,  1836,  authorized  the 
General  Treasurer  to  receive  for  Rhode  Island  the  state's  share 
in  the  distribution  of  the  surplus  revenue  of  the  United  States, 
under  an  act  of  Congress  approved  in  June  of  the  same  year. 
The  Assembly  also  ordered  the  money  deposited  in  state  banks 
paying  five  per  cent,  interest,  and  by  law  provided  for  the 
distribution  of  the  income  of  the  fund  to  the  towns  of  the  state, 
to  be  used  exclusively  for  the  support  of  public  schools.  Three 
installment  payments,  amounting  altogether  to  $382,335.30, 
were  received  from  the  Federal  Government.  The  deposit 
fund  earned  $1,358.35  up  to  April  30,  1837;  $17,676.24  in 
1837-38,  $18,991.14  in  1838-39,  all  of  which,  with  the  $10,000 
provided  by  the  act  of  1828,  was  apportioned  to  the  towns. 
The  school  law  of  1839  fixed  the  annual  school  appropriation  at 
$25,000. 

Besides  the  increased  enrollment  and  attendance  which  fol- 
lowed the  distribution  of  larger  state  appropriations,  other 
statistics  indicate  substantial  improvement.  The  following 
table  shows  for  the  state  the  number  of  public  schools,  the 
number  of  public  school  teachers,  the  number  of  male  pupils, 
the  number  of  female  pupils,  the  whole  number  of  pupils, 
town  expenditures  for  fuel,  rent,  etc.,  expenditures  for  instruc- 
tion, and  the  total  expenditures  for  support  of  public  schools 
in  the  years  from  1839  to  1845,  inclusive  : 


116 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 


1839. 

1840. 

1841. 

1842. 

1843. 

1844. 

1845. 

Schools  

365 

393 

408 

409 

402 

428 

407 

Teachers  

427 

481 

495 

465 

482 

515 

495 

Male  pupils  

8,112 

10,202 

11,253 

12,479 

11,960 

11,811 

11,386 

Female  pupils  

5,636 

7,550 

9,000 

9,372 

8,132 

10,345 

9,710 

Total  pupils  

13,784 

17,752 

20,253 

21,851 

20,092 

22,156 

20,096 

Expenditures  : 
Fuel,  rent,  etc  

$2,972 

$4,104 

$6,313 

$5,482 

$5,899 

$5,405 

$5,165 

Instruction  

32,383 

36,096 

40,516 

39,088 

42,944 

48,336 

48,444 

Total  expenditures  .  . 

35,355 

40,200 

46,829 

44,570 

48,843 

53,741 

53,609 

Another  Advance  in  Providence. — In  Providence  the  Associa- 
tion of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers  petitioned  the  city  council 
for  better  school  facilities  in  1837,  referring  to  the  act  of  1836,  as 
follows  : 

"  Your  memorialists  are  convinced  that  the  present  is  the  time 
to  commence  this  work  of  reform.  The  amount  that  will  be 
received  from  the  government  and  devoted  to  education  will 
considerably  alleviate  the  expense  at  the  outset,  and  the  in- 
habitants of  the  city  are  now  so  well  convinced  of  the  necessity 
of  effort  that  any  appropriation  for  this  object  would  no  doubt 
meet  with  their  approbation." 

The  memorialists  suggested  the  establishment  of  a  grade  of 
schools  between  the  primary  and  writing  schools  "for  reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic  only,  the  design  of  which  is  to  give  a 
thorough  instruction  in  these  branches  to  those  children  whose 
parents  need  their  services  at  as  early  an  age  as  12  or  13  years, 
and  who  under  the  present  arrangement  are  compelled  to  leave 
school  with  a  very  superficial  knowledge  of  these  branches, 
which  are  so  necessary  for  obtaining  a  livelihood  in  any  busi- 
ness." "Intermediate"  schools  of  the  kind  described  in  the 
petition  were  subsequently  established  in  the  city,  but  the 
immediate  action  of  the  city  council  was  even  more  liberal  than 
had  been  prayed  for. 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  117 

The  city  council,  on  April  8, 1838,  adopted  an  ordinance  pro- 
viding for  a  high  school,  six  grammar  schools  and  writing  schools, 
and  ten  primary  schools;  and,  most  important  from  the  view- 
point of  administration  and  efficiency,  the  appointment  of  a 
superintendent  of  schools — one  of  the  first  officers  of  the  kind  in 
America.  A  committee  of  the  city  council  was  instructed  to 
visit  the  schoolhouses  of  the  city  and  examine  them;  the  com- 
mittee reported  that  "all  were  unfit  for  use  in  their  present 
condition,  and  were  all  either  too  small,  too  dilapidated  or  too 
badly  constructed  to  be  worth  repairing." 

The  city  thereupon  undertook  the  building  of  new  schools, 
the  movement  continuing  six  years.  A  high  school  building, 
which  cost  $21,572.87,  was  constructed;  it  is  the  substantial 
brick  building  on  Benefit  street  which  subsequently  to  use  as  a 
high  school  housed  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  for  a 
generation,  and  is  now  occupied  by  the  Rhode  Island  Supreme 
Court.  Six  grammar  schools  were  built  at  an  average  cost  of 
$10,463.22,  and  six  primary  schools,  at  an  average  cost  of 
$1,865.60.  That  the  era  of  large  schools  had  not  passed  in 
Providence,  however,  is  shown  by  the  floor  plans  of  these  build- 
ings, schoolrooms  in  which  provided  seats  for  120  primary  or 
intermediate  pupils,  and  225  grammar  pupils.  Two  recitation 
rooms  were  provided  with  each  grammar  room.  Not  until 
1857  was  a  change  to  smaller  rooms  made,  upon  the  urgent 
recommendation  of  Superintendent  Leach. 

Nathan  Bishop  was  appointed  Superintendent  of  Schools 
July  23,  1839,  and  entered  upon  his  duties  August  1,  1839. 
Women  teachers  replaced  the  ushers  in  the  grammar  schools, 
as  the  latter  resigned  and  retired,  between  1836  and  1839.  The 
new  high  school  was  opened  in  1843. 

The  enterprise  of  Providence  proved  to  be  an  influential 
factor  in  arousing  the  state  to  undertake  the  great  survey  of 
1843-45,  and  the  improvements  which  followed  it. 


118  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

THE  SCHOOL  LAW  OF  1839. 

A  general  school  law  enacted  in  1839  was  a  codification  and 
an  ampler  statement  of  existing  law  rather  than  an  innovation. 
It  provided  for  : 

1.  An  annual  school  appropriation  of  $25,000,  to  be  appor- 
tioned to  the  towns  in  proportion  to  population  under  15  years 
of  age. — This  was  a  decrease,  because  since  1836  the  appropria- 
tion had  been  $10,000,  plus  the  income  of  the  United  States 
deposit  fund.     It  was,  however,  a  fortunate  provision,  because 
the  income  of  the  deposit  fund  was  uncertain,  and  the  fund 
itself  was  liable  to  recall. 

2.  Application  of  lottery  and  auction  revenue  to  repayment 
of  the  state's  debt  to  the  permanent  school  fund,  and  after 
repayment  to  its  increase. — In  the  11  years  from  1828,  $53,- 
402.20  had  been  invested  for  the  fund  in  bank  stocks,  the  par 
value  of  which  was  $51,300.     The  state  owed  the  fund  the 
uninvested  balance  of  the  revenue  appropriated  for  the  fund 
in  1828,  amounting  to  $15,773.33. 

3.  Permissible  town  taxation  for  support  of  public  schools, 
limited,  as  in  the  act  of  1828,  to  double  the  amount  of  the  money 
received  from  the  state;  there  was  no  minimum  requirement. — 
This  was  actually  an  advance  in  the  permissible  maximum  from 
$20,000  to  $50,000.     It  changed  the  limits  of  state-town  school 
money,     from     $10,000-30,000     annually    to    $25,000-75,000 
annually. 

4.  Exclusive  use  of  state  school  money  for  payment  for 
instruction,  and  not  for  room  rent,  fuel  or  any  other  purpose 
whatsoever. — In  subsequent  acts  this  appropriation  was  desig- 
nated "teachers'  money."     The  section  as  it  stood  in  the  act  of 
1839  would  have  forced  towns  to  supplement  the  state  appro- 
priation to  the  extent  of  paying  at  least  incidental  charges. 
Later  in  1839  the  law  was  modified  by  an  act  which  permitted 
school  committees,  where  towns  made  no  provision  for  in- 
cidental expenses,  to  assess  for  school  expenses  the  parents  or 
guardians  of  pupils  by  rate  bills.     Payment  of  tuition  in  the 
form  of  a  fuel  bill  was  abolished  in  Providence  in  1833;   rate 
bills  were  discontinued  by  other  towns  from  time  to  time,  and 
were  forbidden  by  statute  in  1868. 

5.  Reports  and  certificates  that  school  money  had  been 
used  in  compliance  with  law. 

6.  Town  school  committees  of  5  to  30  residents  with  power: 

1 .  To  make  regulations  and  rules  for  the  government  of  schools. 

2.  To   suspend   or   expel   scholars   for  misconduct.     3.     To 
determine  the  location  of  schoolhouses  or  schools.     4.   To  fill 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  119 

vacancies  in  the  committee  caused  by  death,  resignation  or 
removal.  5.  To  appoint  teachers,  taking  care  that  they  be  of 
good  moral  character,  temperate  and  otherwise  well  qualified 
for  the  office.  6.  To  dismiss  teachers  in  case  of  inability  or 
misconduct.  7.  To  visit  all  schools  at  least  once  every  three 
months,  and  to  superintend,  watch  over  and  provide  for  the 
well  ordering  and  governing  of  the  same.  8.  To  allow  and 
certify  all  accounts.  9.  To  report  to  the  annual  town  meeting. 
10.  To  report  school  statistics*  to  the  Secretary  of  State  an- 
nually. 11.  To  hold  quarterly  meetings  in  January,  April, 
July  and  October.  12.  To  apportion  state  school  money 
among  the  different  schools  and  school  districts.  13.  To  deter- 
mine the  number  of  schools  to  be  kept  per  district.  14.  To 
send  school  children  to  schools  in  adjacent  towns,  if  more 
convenient,  and  pay  tuition  for  them. 

7.  Corporate   powers  for    (1)    school  districts,    (2)   school 
societies  of  five  members  or  more,  and  (3)  library  associations. 

8.  Union  school  districts,  to  be  made  up  of  contiguous  dis- 
tricts in  adjoining  towns,  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  a  union 
district  school. 

The  new  features  of  the  act,  wherein  it  was  an  advance  over 
the  act  of  1828  were  (1)  an  increased  fixed  appropriation  for 
support  of  public  schools,  (2)  clearer  definition  of  specific  powers 
of  school  committees,  (3)  provision  for  the  annual  collection  of 
school  statistics,  and  (4)  general  corporate  powers  for  districts, 
school  societies  and  libraries. 

School  committees,  by  act  of  1842,  were  required  to  examine, 
personally  or  by  committee,  and  to  ascertain  the  qualifications 
and  capacity  for  the  government  of  schools  of  all  instructors 
employed  in  their  respective  towns;  no  person  could  be  legally 
employed  to  teach  in  any  public  school  without  a  certificate  of 
examination  and  qualification.  This  act  did  not  apply  to 
Providence,  North  Providence  and  Smithfield. 

Special  acts  from  1839  to  1845  permitted  the  school  com- 
mittee of  Providence  to  meet  at  times  to  suit  its  convenience; 
permitted  Little  Compton  and  Portsmouth  to  elect  school  com- 
mittees at  times  other  than  that  specified  by  the  general  law; 
permitted  various  towns  to  make  belated  reports  required  by  law 

*These  statistics  were  essentially  the  same  as  those  mentioned  above. 


120  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   EHODE   ISLAND. 

without  forfeiture  of  school  money;  authorized  various  school 
districts  in  North  Providence,  Tiverton,  Exeter,  Coventry, 
Johnston,  North  Kingstown,  Scituate  and  Foster,  and  all 
districts  in  Glocester,  South  Kingstown,  North  Providence, 
Burrillville  and  Tiverton  to  build  and  repair  schoolhouses ; 
adjusted  various  disputes  as  to  taxation,  and  legalized  irregular 
elections  and  actions  of  school  committees  in  vaiious  towns. 

A  STATE  SCHOOL  COMMITTEE. 

School  enrollment  increased  from  13,748  in  1839  to  20,253  in 
1841,  a  gain  of  almost  50  per  cent,  in  two  years,  coincident  with 
improvement  due  to  increased  appropriations.  From  1841  to 
1845  there  was  no  gain,  the  totals  for  the  state  being  20,253  in 
1841,  21,851  in  1842,  20,092  in  1843,  22,156  in  1844  and  20,096 
in  1845.  Fluctuation  in  the  attendance  of  girl  pupils  was 
sufficient  to  produce  the  variation  in  totals.  School  attendance 
in  the  period  increased  in  Providence,  under  the  influence  of 
the  continued  improvement  there,  but  otherwise,  generally,  the 
state  was  marking  time  and  scarcely  holding  the  advance  gained 
in  1839-1841.  A  law  requiring  children  under  12  employed  in 
factories  to  attend  school  three  months  a  year  had  little  appre- 
ciable influence  upon  school  enrollment,  if,  indeed,  the  law  was 
observed  or  its  enforcement  attempted.  The  act  itself  pro- 
vided none  of  the  machinery  necessary  for  making  it  effective. 

The  example  of  Providence,  then  carrying  forward  its — for 
the  times — almost  munificent  project  of  building  new  school- 
houses  was  stimulating,  but  improvement  elsewhere  came 
about,  not  through  imitation  upon  the  initiative  of  the  towns, 
but  through  legislation  and  the  initiative  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, which  became  under  the  Constitution  of  1842  a  state  school 
committee.  Fortunately  for  Rhode  Island  no  question  of 
school  policy  was  involved  in  the  political  controversy  of  long 
standing,  which  in  1842  reached  a  crisis  in  the  Dorr  war. 
Thomas  Wilson  Dorr,  leader  of  the  party  which  demanded 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM.  121 

manhood  suffrage  without  the  restrictions  of  freemanship  im- 
posed by  the  charter  government,  as  a  member  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  1836  and  as  a  member  of  the  first  legislative  com- 
mittee on  education  of  which  there  is  record,  presented  the  law 
which  appropriated  the  income  of  the  United  States  deposit 
fund  to  school  support,  and  led  the  successful  battle  for  its 
enactment.  He  was  a  member  of  the  school  committee  of 
Providence  from  1838  to  1842,  succeeding  Mayor  Bridgham  as 
President  of  the  committee  in  1841.  Throughout  the  period  of 
his  membership  he  was  an  influential  and  active  advocate  of 
many  of  the  reforms  which  canied  the  schools  of  the  city  to  a 
condition  of  efficiency  which  elicited  this  praise  from  Henry 
Barnard  in  1845:  "The  city  of  Providence  has  already  gained 
to  itself  an  extended  reputation  and  made  itself  a  bright  example 
to  many  other  cities." 

The  Don  Agitation. — The  People's  Constitution  of  1841-42, 
under  which  Dorr  was  elected  Goveinor  April  18,  1842,  con- 
tained an  uncompromising  declaration  favoring  public  educa- 
tion and  "free  schools."*  The  Landholders'  Constitution  of 
1841-42,  drafted  by  a  convention  in  which  the  opponents  of 
Dorr  were  in  control,  contained  a  declaration  as  uncompro- 
misingly favoring  public  education  and  "public  schools. "f 
For  purposes  of  comparison,  the  sections  of  the  two  Constitutions 
dealing  with  education  and  schools  are  printed  in  parallel 
columns  : 

*  People's  Constitution. — The  diffusion  of  t  Landholder's     Constitution.  —  ARTICLE 

knowledge,  and  the  cultivation  of  a  sound  XII. — Of  Education. — Sec.  1.     The  diffu- 

morality  in  the  fear  of  God  being  of  the  sion  of  knowledge,  as  well  as  of  virtue, 

first  importance  in  a  republican  State,  and  among  the  people  being  essential  to  the 

indispensable   to  the   maintenance   of  its  preservation  of  their  rights  and  liberties,  it 

liberty,  it  shall  be  an  imperative  duty  of  the  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  General  Assembly 

Legislature  to  promote  the  establishment  to  promote  public  schools  and  to  adopt  all 

of  free  schools  and  to  assist  in  the  support  other  means  to  secure  to  the  people  the 

of  public  education. — Declaration  of  Rights  advantages  and  opportunities  of  education 

and  Principles,  No.  5.  which    they    may    deem    necessary    and 

ARTICLE  XII. — Of  Education. — Sec.   1.  proper. 

All  moneys  which  now  are  or  may  hereafter  Sec.  2.     The  money  which  now  is,   or 

be  appropriated  by  the  authority  of  the  which  hereafter  may  be  appropriated  by 

state  to  public  education  shall  be  securely  law  for  the  formation  of  a  permanent  fund 


122 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 


The  People's  Constitution  was  the  earlier  document.  A 
mass  meeting  of  the  people  of  the  state,  held  in  Providence,  May 
5,  1841,  appointed  a  state  committee.  On  July  5,  1841,  the 
state  committee  was  directed  to  call  a  convention  for  the  pur- 
pose of  framing  a  constitution.  Delegates  were  elected  August 
8,  1841,  and  met  in  convention  in  the  State  House  in  Provi- 
dence, October  4,  1841.  On  November  18,  1841,  the  People's 
Constitution  was  adopted  by  this  convention;  it  was  submitted 
to  the  people,  freemen  and  non-freemen,  December  27,  28  and 
29,  1841,  for  ratification.  It  was  ratified  by  a  vote  of  13,444 
to  52,  and  proclaimed  January  13,  1842.  Dorr  was  elected 
Governor  under  its  provisions  April  18,  1842,  but  his  attempt 
to  assume  the  prerogatives  of  his  office  was  suppressed  by  the 
charter  government. 

The  Landholders'  Constitution  was  framed  by  a  convention 
which  was  called  pursuant  to  authority  of  the  General  Assembly, 


invested  and  remain  a  perpetual  fund  for 
the  maintenance  of  free  schools  in  this 
state;  and  the  General  Assembly  shall  be 
prohibited  from  diverting  said  moneys  or 
fund  from  this  use,  and  from  borrowing, 
appropriating  or  using  the  same,  or  any 
part  thereof  for  any  purpose,  or  under  any 
pretence  whatsoever.  But  the  income  de- 
rived from  said  moneys  or  fund  shall  be 
annually  paid  over  by  the  General  Treas- 
urer to  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  state  for 
the  support  of  said  schools,  in  equitable 
proportions;  provided,  however,  that  a 
portion  of  said  income  may,  in  the  discretion 
of  the  General  Assembly,  be  added  to  the 
principal  of  said  fund. 

Sec.  2.  The  several  towns  and  cities 
shall  faithfully  devote  their  portions  of  said 
annual  distribution  to  the  support  of  free 
schools,  and,  in  default  thereof,  shall  forfeit 
their  shares  in  the  same  to  the  increase  of 
the  fund. 

Sec.  3.  All  charitable  donations  for  the 
support  of  free  schools  and  other  purposes 
of  public  education  shall  be  received  by  the 
General  Assembly,  and  invested  and  applied 
agreeably  to  the  forms  prescribed  by  the 
donors,  provided  the  same  be  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  Constitution  or  with  sound 
public  policy,  in  which  case  the  donation 
shall  not  be  received. 


for  the  support  of  public  schools  shall  be 
securely  invested  and  remain  a  perpetual 
fund  for  that  purpose. 

Sec.  3.  All  donations  for  the  support  of 
public  schools,  or  for  other  purposes  of 
education  which  shall  be  received  by  the 
General  Assembly  shall  be  applied  accord- 
ing to  the  terms  prescribed  by  the  donors. 

Sec.  4.  The  General  Assembly  shall 
make  all  necessary  provision  by  law  for 
carrying  this  article  into  effect.  They 
are  prohibited  from  diverting  said  moneys 
or  fund  from  the  aforesaid  uses,  and  from 
borrowing,  appropriating  or  using  the 
same,  or  any  part  thereof,  under  any  pre- 
tence whatsoever. 


ORGANIZATION   OF   A   STATE   SYSTEM.  123 

by  vote  of  February  6,  1841.  The  convention  met  in  Provi- 
dence, November  11,  1841,  and  at  an  adjourned  meeting, 
Febiuary  18,  1842,  adopted  the  Landholders'  Constitution. 
The  freemen  rejected  this  constitution  March  21,  22  and  23, 
1842,  by  a  vote  of  8013  for  and  8689  against. 

Constitutional  Provision  for  Schools. — Not  less  significant  than 
the  declaration  for  free  schools  as  against  public  schools  was  the 
sweeping  provision  in  the  People's  Constitution  for  the  con- 
servation of  public  money  pledged  to  the  support  of  public 
schools.  The  Landholders'  Constitution  safeguarded  merely 
the  permanent  school  fund  established  by  the  act  of  1828,  and 
donations  for  the  support  of  public  schools  and  public  educa- 
tion. The  People's  Constitution  reached  beyond  the  per- 
menent  school  fund  to  "all  moneys  which  now  are,  or  may  here- 
after be,  appropriated  by  the  authority  of  the  state  to  public 
education."  It  ordered  applied  to  school  support  or  the  increase 
of  the  permanent  school  fund,  the  income  which  the  state 
derived  from  lotteries  and  auction  duties,  as  well  as  the  entire 
income  of  the  United  States  deposit  fund.  Moreoever,  it 
forbade  borrowing  from  the  deposit  fund,  a  practice  begun  by 
the  state  in  1840.  In  the  course  of  events  which  followed 
rapidly  in  1842,  the  United  States  deposit  fund  furnished  a  war 
chest  for  the  charter  government  for  suppressing  the  Dorr 
movement,  $107,000  being  taken  therefrom  in  1842-43.  Thus 
Rhode  Island  history  presents  an  unusual  instance  of  use  for 
his  own  destruction  at  the  hands  of  his  enemies  of  a  fund  which 
a  statesman  had  labored  to  preserve  intact. 

A  third  constitutional  convention  met  at  East  Greenwich 
November  5,  1842,  and  framed  the  present  State  Constitution, 
which  the  freemen,  qualified  by  law  to  vote,  ratified  November 
21,  22  and  23,  1842,  by  a  vote  of  7032  to  59.  This  constitution 
contained  an  article  entitled  "Of  Education,"  which  in  phrase- 
ology varied  but  slightly  from  article  XII  of  the  Landholders' 


124  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Constitution.*  The  granting  of  lotteries  was  forbidden,  thus 
abolishing  the  most  productive  source  of  school  revenue  under 
the  act  of  1828.  The  constitution  prescribed  a  voluntary 
registry  tax  of  one  dollar  per  annum  to  be  paid  by  citizens,  other 
than  qualified  taxpayers,  who  wished  to  vote.  The  registry 
tax  was  the  forerunner  of  the  present  poll  tax,  and  like  the  poll 
tax,  was  appropriated  by  the  Constitution  to  the  support  of 
public  schools.  In  1844  the  General  Assembly  perfected  the 
registry  tax  provision  of  the  Constitution  by  an  act  which 
directed  town  treasurers  to  transfer  to  the  town  school  account 
annually  the  proceeds  of  the  registry  tax. 

The  State  Constitution  of  1842,  therefore,  abolished  one 
source  of  school  revenue  and  substituted  another  for  it.  Of  no 
less  importance,  it  made  the  General  Assembly  a  state  school 
committee,  whose  duty  it  was  "to  promote  public  schools  and 
to  adopt  all  means  that  they  may  deem  necessary  and  proper 
to  secure  to  the  people  the  advantages  and  opportunities  of 
education."  This  provision  of  the  fundamental  law  was 
speedily  exercised  by  the  first  General  Assembly  elected  under 
the  new  Constitution.  The  action  taken  at  the  October  session 
of  the  General  Assembly  was  the  beginning  of  a  complete 
reorganization  of  the  school  system.  The  year  1843  thus 
became  one  of  the  most  notable  in  Rhode  Island  history;  it 


*  The  text  of  the  article  on  education  fund  for  the  support  of  public  schools  shall 

follows  :  be   securely  invested   and   remain   a   per- 

ABTICLE  XII.  petual  fund  for  that  purpose. 

OF  EDUCATION.  Sec'  3"     A11  d°nation8  for  the  8UPP°rt 

of   public   schools,   or   for   other  purposes 

Sec.  1.     The  diffusion  of  knowledge,  as  Of  education  which   may  be  received  by 

well  as  of  virtue,  among  the  people  being  the    General    Assembly    shall   be    applied 

essential  to  the  preservation  of  their  rights  according  to  the  terms  prescribed  by  the 

and  liberties,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  donors. 

General     Assembly     to     promote     public  gec.    4.     The    General    Assembly    shall 

schools  and  to  adopt  all  other  means  which  make  all  necessary  provision  by  law  for 

they  may  deem  necessary  and  proper  to  carrying    this    article    into    effect.     They 

secure  to  the  people  the  advantages  and  g^n  not  divert  said  money  or  fund  from 

opportunities  of  education.  the  aforesaid  uses,  nor  borrow,  appropriate 

Sec.  2.     The  money  which  now  is,   or  or  use  the  same,  or  any  part  thereof,  for 

which  may  hereafter  be  appropriated  by  any   other   purpose,    under   any   pretence 

law  for  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  whatsoever. 


ORGANIZATION   OF   A   STATE    SYSTEM.  125 

marks  the  bediming  of  government  under  a  Constitution  and 
the  inauguration  of  a  reform  which  substituted,  eventually,  a 
state  system  of  public  schools  for  the  town  system  established 
under  the  law  of  1828. 

WILKINS  UPDIKE— FORERUNNER  OF  HENRY 
BARNARD. 

At  the  October  session  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1843, 
Wilkins  Updike,  Esq.,  Representative  from  South  Kingstown, 
introduced  a  bill,  the  text  of  which  follows  : 

"It  is  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  as  follows  : 

"Sec.  1.  The  Governor  of  this  state  shall  employ  some 
suitable  person  as  agent,  for  the  purposes  hereafter  mentioned, 
at  a  reasonable  compensation  for  his  services. 

"  Sec.  2.  The  said  agent  shall  visit  and  examine  the  respec- 
tive public  schools  in  this  state;  ascertain  the  length  of  time 
each  district  school  is  kept,  and  at  what  season  of  the  year,  the 
qualifications  of  the  respective  teachers  of  said  schools,  the 
mode  of  instruction  therein;  collect  information  of  the  actual 
condition  and  efficiency  of  our  public  schools  and  other  means 
of  popular  education,  and  diffuse  as  widely  as  possible  among  the 
people  a  knowledge  of  the  most  approved  and  successful 
methods  of  arranging  the  studies  and  conducting  the  education 
of  the  young,  to  the  end  that  the  children  of  the  state  who 
depend  upon  common  schools  for  instruction  may  have  the 
best  education  that  those  schools  may  be  made  to  impart;  and 
shall  make  report  to  the  Legislature  with  such  observations 
and  reflections  as  experience  may  suggest,  upon  the  condition 
and  efficiency  of  our  system  of  popular  education,  and  the 
most  practicable  means  of  improving  the  same. 

"Sec.  3.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  preceptors  of  the  public 
schools  in  the  respective  districts  in  this  state,  from  time  to 
time,  to  furnish  said  agent  with  all  the  information  he  may 
require,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of 
this  act." 

After  an  explanation  by  Mr.  Updike*  his  bill  was  passed 
unanimously  by  both  houses  of  the  General  Assembly.  Governor 

*  The  Providence  Journal  of  November  2,  He  exposed  very  ably  and  very  clearly  the 

1843,  reported  Mr.  Updike's  speech  in  insufficiency  of  free  schools  in  most  of  the 

support  of  his  bill  as  follows  :  towns  in  this  state  when  compared  with  the 

Mr.  Updike  presented  an  act  relating  to  amount  of  the  appropriation  by  the  state, 

the  state  of  the  free  schools  in  this  state.  There  was  no  uniform  system  of  teaching, 


126 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 


Tenner  appointed  Henry  Barnard  as  State  School  Agent  to 
make  the  survey  provided  for  in  the  act. 

Wilkins  Updike,  father  of  the  great  survey  of  1843-45,  lived  to 
see  the  undertaking  of  which  he  was  the  prophet  carried  forward 
to  completion  in  the  reorganization  of  the  public  school  system. 
He  was  a  staunch  and  able  supporter  of  the  Barnard  school  bill 
in  1844  and  1845.  His  death  in  1867  was  memorialized  by  the 


no  suitable  boards  for  examination  of 
teachers,  no  uniform  set  of  class  books,  not 
only  throughout  the  state,  but  even  in  the 
same  district.  Each  succeeding  master 
differs  from  the  former,  and  there  is  no 
sort  of  uniform  system  in  the  teaching  in 
the  same  schoolhouse.  The  necessity  of 
normal  schools,  for  the  education  of  teach- 
ers, is  apparent  to  the  most  superficial 
observer.  One  man,  one  winter,  teaches 
from  one  set  of  books,  and  the  next  teacher 
requires  an  altogether  different  set  of  books. 
As  soon  as  the  children  begin  to  learn  in 
one  way,  they  are  required  to  unlearn  that, 
and  begin  another.  The  teachers  should 
first  be  taught,  and  then,  when. they  have 
learned  the  science  of  teaching,  they  should 
be  allowed  to  begin  teaching,  but  not  till 
then.  In  other  states,  where  such  normal 
schools  are  established,  persons  who  form- 
erly taught  have  gone  to  them  in  order  to 
learn  the  science  of  teaching.  There  should 
also  be  boards  of  commissioners  to  examine 
these  teachers  and  decide  upon  their  moral 
and  intellectual  qualifications.  If  these 
institutions  were  properly  settled,  and  a 
uniform  system  of  education  established 
throughout  the  state,  the  value  of  the 
appropriation  would  be  more  than  doubled. 

Mr.  Updike  went  at  length  into  the 
various  systems  of  education  in  the  neigh- 
boring states,  and  passed  a  deserved 
eulogium  on  the  system  of  the  city  of 
Providence. 

Mr.  Updike  enlarged  upon  the  benefit 
which  would  result  to  the  youth  of  this  state 
from  a  uniform  and  general  system  of  educa- 
tion. An  instance  had  lately  come  to  his 
knowledge,  in  a  conversation  with  a  member 
of  the  school  committee  of  the  city  of  Provi- 
dence, which  developed  clearly  the  value  of 
the  system  in  that  city,  and  the  imperfec- 
tions of  those  in  the  towns.  A  woman,  the 
wife  of  a  farmer  in  one  of  the  northern  towns, 
had  moved  to  Providence  and  opened  a 
boarding  house,  while  her  husband  re- 


mained at  home  and  cultivated  the  farm. 
She  stated  that  she  had  a  large  family  and 
that  she  had  removed  to  the  city  for  the 
purpose  of  procuring  for  her  children  the 
advantages  of  free  schools,  which  are 
equal  to  any  of  their  kind  in  the  country. 
If  the  same  system  were  extended  over  the 
state  ;  if  the  same  acquirements  were 
deemed  necessary  for  teachers,  and  the 
same  supervision  held  by  competent  men 
over  the  government  and  management  of 
the  schools,  who  can  estimate  the  moral  and 
intellectual  benefits  which  would  result  to 
coming  generations?  Children  invariably 
copy  and  imitate  their  teachers;  they  con- 
form to  their  moral  habits  and  aspire  to 
their  intellectual  acquirements.  Suppose, 
then,  that  teachers,  with  all  the  requisite 
qualities  and  acquirements,  who  had  been 
instructed  in  the  science  of  teaching,  should 
be  placed  over  the  district  schools  six  or 
seven  months  in  the  year,  what  incalculable 
blessings  would  flow  from  it!  How  much 
would  they  promote  the  taste  for  learning 
and  raise  the  standard  for  intellectual 
acquirement. 

He  had  long  been  of  the  opinon  that  a 
board  of  education  should  be  established 
in  this  state,  and  that  by  their  wise  and 
enlightened  regulations  the  value  of  the 
free  school  establishment  would  be  more 
than  doubled.  Look  at  the  workings  of  the 
system  of  Connecticut,  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire;  their  schools  do  not 
flourish  in  the  large  towns  alone,  but  are 
scattered  on  the  same  wise  and  impartial 
basis  throughout  the  small  villages,  and  the 
scattered  country  districts.  Wherever 
their  beneficent  provisions  extend  (and 
they  are  felt  in  every  school  district)  there 
is  to  be  found  a  teacher  instructed  in  his 
science,  capable  of  teaching  the  youth  en- 
trusted to  his  charge,  and  of  disseminating 
a  taste  of  learning  among  all  with  whom  he 
associates.  He  is  appointed  by  a  com- 
petent board,  whose  reputation  for  knowl- 


ORGANIZATION    OF   A    STATE    SYSTEM. 


127 


General  Assembly  in  resolutions  that  failed  to  mention  perhaps 
his  greatest  service  to  his  state.     The  resolutions  follow  : 

"Whereas  the  General  Assembly  has  learned  with  sorrow  of 
the  death  of  the  Honorable  Wilkins  Updike  of  Kingston,  for 
many  years  a  prominent  member  of  this  body;  therefore, 

"Resolved,  That  we  desire  to  inscribe  upon  the  record  some 
memorial  of  our  respect  for  this  old-fashioned  gentleman,  this 
vigorous  and  honest  legislator,  this  hospitable  and  warm 
hearted  citizen. 


edge  and  discretion  is  high  among  the 
people.  The  teacher,  therefore,  receives 
and  deserves  a  confidence  which  an  inex" 
perienced  teacher  cannot  acquire.  [Per- 
haps Mr.  Updike's  somewhat  exaggerated 
praise  of  other  systems  was  justified  by  the 
importance  of  the  occasion.  The  comment 
is  the  author's.] 

One  small  town  in  New  Hampshire,  said 
Mr.  Updike,  has  sent  forth  twelve  dis- 
tinguished men  to  different  professions  and 
the  councils  of  its  own  and  other  states. 
What  a  comment  is  this  upon  the  taste  for 
learning  diffused  by  means  of  proper 
schools. 

The  act  which  he  proposed  directed  an 
inquiry  into  the  management  of  our  free 
schools,  with  a  view  to  further  action  when 
the  report  of  a  committee  should  make 
known  what  action  was  needed.  He  hoped 
all  would  enter  into  this  matter  with  the 
interest  which  it  deserved,  and  that  the 
future  action  of  the  Assembly  should  place 
the  free  school  system  upon  such  a  basis  as 
to  insure  a  healthy  and  beneficial  system  of 
education. 

Another  version  of  Wilkins  Updike's 
address  appeared  in  Henry  Barnard's  re- 
port for  1845  : 

"The  free  school  system  as  it  then 
existed  was  not  a  blessing  to  the  state  ex- 
cept in  the  city  of  Providence,  and  possibly 
a  few  other  towns,  where  a  similar  course 
was  pursued.  This  was  not  owing  to  the 
want  of  liberal  appropriation  from  the 
General  Treasury.  This  was  large  enough, 
or  at  least,  was  larger  than  was  made  by 
any  other  state  to  the  several  towns.  But 
the  difficulty  lay  with  the  towns  and  with 
the  want  of  any  thorough  system  for  the 
examination  of  teachers,  the  regulation  of 
books  and  supervision  of  schools  by  officers 
qualified  to  discharge  these  duties.  Our 
teachers  come  from  abroad,  are  employed  to 
teach  without  producing  evidence  either 
of  moral  character  or  their  fitness  to  teach, 


remain  in  the  schools  two  or  three  months, 
and  within  24  hours  of  the  close  of  the 
term  are  gone  to  parts  unknown.  The 
books  for  our  schools  are  selected  by 
authors  and  publishers,  or  itinerant  ven- 
ders, and  all  that  parents  have  to  do  about 
the  matter  is  to  get  new  books  every  year, 
and  pay  the  bills.  As  to  visiting  schools, 
who  ever  heard  of  committees  going  about 
into  the  different  districts,  or  of  parents 
being  seen  in  the  schoolroom?  These 
things  should  be  looked  into.  The  Legis- 
lature should  know  what  becomes  of  the 
sum  of  $25,000  which  is  drawn  annually 
from  the  General  Treasury.  The  people 
should  have  their  attenton  called  to  the 
actual  state  of  education  among  us.  Our 
self-respect  should  be  aroused  by  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  fact  brought  out  by  the  last 
census  of  the  United  States,  from  which  it- 
appeared  that  Rhode  Island  is  behind  the 
other  New  England  states  in  this  matter. 
With  a  population  of  108,830  we  have  over 
1600  adults  who  cannot  read  or  write, 
while  Connecticut,  with  a  population  of 
309,978,  has  only  526.  The  other  New 
England  states  not  only  educate  their  own 
teachers,  lawyers,  doctors  and  clergymen, 
but  help  to  supply  our  demand  for  these 
classes  of  men.  It  is  time  to  bestir  our- 
selves in  this  matter.  We  need  not  act 
with  precipitation.  All  that  this  bill  pro- 
vides for  is  information  as  to  the  real  state 
of  things,  and  upon  such  information  the 
Legislature  and  the  people  can  act  under- 
standingly.  Pass  this  bill,  sustain  the 
agent  who  may  be  appointed,  act  upon  his 
recommendations  when  they  are  sustained 
by  facts  and  sound  arguments,  engraft  upon 
our  system  the  tried  improvements  of  other 
states,  enlist  the  whole  people  in  this  great 
work  of  elevating  the  schools  where  all  the 
children  of  the  state  may  be  well  educated, 
and  this  little  bill  of  three  sections  will  be 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  our  legislation 
on  the  subject  of  education." 


128  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

"Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Honorable  Wilkins  Updike 
has  passed  away  from  earth  almost  the  last  of  a  generation  of 
true  Rhode  Island  men,  worthy  of  our  respect  and  imitation 
in  the  walks  of  public  and  private  life." 

A  BRIEF  SUMMARY. 

The  progress  of  Rhode  Island  schools  from  organization  in  a 
state  system  under  the  act  of  1828  to  reorganization  under  the 
Constitution  of  1843,  may  be  summarized  briefly  as  follows: 

1.  In   1828  an  awakened    statewide    interest  in    schools 
resulted  in  (1)  a  state  appropriation  of  $10,000  annually  for 
support  of  town  public  schools,  (2)  the  beginning  of  a  perma- 
nent school  fund,  and  (3)  in  Providence,  where  free  schools  had 
been  established  in  1800,  a  reorganization,  a  grading  of  schools 
and  a  gain  of  25  per  cent,  in  attendance. 

2.  The  state  appropriation  stimulated  general  improvement 
in  schools  throughout  the  state,  as  proved  by  an  unprejudiced 
survey  undertaken  by  citizens  of  Providence  in  1831. 

3.  The  years  of  improvement  were  followed  by  a  period  of 
stagnation  and  reaction,  in  which  little  or  no  further  progress 
was  made.     In  the  critical  years  school  attendance  failed  to 
increase  proportionately  to  population. 

4.  Careful  investigation  and  analysis  of  conditions  disclosed 
in  the  quality  of  the  public  schools  a  reason  for  retarded  im- 
provement.    The  industrial  organization  of  the  state  proved 
detrimental  to  increased  attendance. 

5.  An  increase  in  state  school  appropriations  after  1836,  as 
the  income  of  the  United  States  deposit  fund  became  available, 
produced   (1)   improvement  throughout  the  state  generally, 
shown  by  an  increase  in  attendance  of  nearly  50  per  cent.,  and 
(2)  in  Providence  still  another  advance,  involving  (a)  a  further 
grading  of  schools,  (b)  rebuilding  of  schoolhouses,  and  (c)  the 
appointment  of  a  superintendent  of  schools. 

6.  In  1842  Rhode  Island  adopted  a  Constitution,  which 
made  the  General  Assembly  a  state  school  committee,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  advance  education. 

7.  The  example  of  Providence  and  the  excellence  of  the  city 
public  schools  attracted  the  attention  of  the  General  Assembly. 
Wilkins  Updike  introduced  a  bill  calling  for  a  state  school 
survey  by  an  expert.     The  bill  was  passed  unanimously. 

8.  Henry  Barnard,  appointed  agent  and  afterward  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools,  guided  the  state  to  a  reorganization 
of  the  public  school  system. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


SURVEY  AND  REORGANIZATION. 


The  school  survey  is  not  a  modern  invention,  much  as  the 
term  has  come  to  be  associated  almost  exclusively  with  the 
twentieth  century.  Horace  Mann's  labors  in  Massachusetts 
amounted  to  a  survey,  but  Horace  Mann  was  not  an  educational 
expert  when  he  accepted  office.  Rhode  Island  inaugurated  a 
thorough  survey  of  the  most  approved  modern  type  when 
Governor  James  Fenner  selected  for  the  work  outlined  in  Wilkins 
Updike's  bill  an  educational  expert  from  beyond  the  state's 
borders — Henry  Barnard,  without  question  the  foremost  Ameri- 
can educator  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Governor  Fenner 
announced  the  appointment  of  Henry  Barnard  as  state  school 
agent  in  the  following  proclamation: 

"  To  the  people  of  Rhode  Island  : 

"  In  pursuance  of  an  act  to  provide  for  ascertaining  the  con- 
dition of  the  public  schools  of  this  state,  and  for  the  improvement 
and  better  management  thereof,  I  have  secured  the  services  of 
Henry  Barnard,  who  has  had  several  years  experience  in  the 
discharge  of  similar  duties  in  a  neighboring  state,  and  observed 
the  workings  of  various  systems  of  public  instruction  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe. 

"Mr.  Barnard  will  enter  immediately  on  the  duties  of  his 
office.  His  great  object  will  be  to  collect  and  disseminate  in 
every  practicable  way  information  respecting  existing  defects 
and  desirable  improvements  in  the  organization  and  adminis- 
tration of  our  school  system,  and  to  awaken,  enlighten  and 
elevate  public  sentiment  in  relation  to  the  whole  system  of 
public  education.  With  this  view  he  will  visit  all  parts  of  the 
state  and  ascertain  by  personal  inspection  and  inquiries  of 
teachers,  school  committees  and  others,  the  actual  condition  of 
the  schools,  with  their  various  and  deeply  interesting  statistical 
details.  He  will  meet  in  every  town,  if  practicable,  such  persons 


130  PUBLIC  EDUCATION   IN    RHODE  ISLAND. 

as  are  disposed  to  assemble  together,  for  the  purpose  of  stating 
facts,  views  and  opinions  on  the  condition  and  improvement  of 
the  schools,  and  the  more  complete  and  thorough  education  of 
the  people.  He  will  invite  oral  and  written  communications 
from  teachers,  school  committees  and  all  others  interested  in 
the  subject,  respecting  their  plans  and  suggestions  for  advancing 
the  intellectual  and  moral  improvement  of  the  rising  and  all 
future  generations  in  the  state.  The  result  of  his  labors  and 
inquiries  will  be  communicated  in  a  report  to  the  General 
Assembly. 

"In  the  prosecution  of  labors  so  delicate,  difficult  and  ex- 
tensive Mr.  Barnard  will  need  the  sympathy  and  co-operation 
of  every  citizen  of  the  state.  With  the  most  cordial  approval 
of  the  object  of  the  Legislature  and  entire  confidence  in  the 
ability,  experience  and  zeal  of  the  gentleman  whom  I  have 
selected  to  carry  it  out,  I  commend  both  to  the  encouragement 
and  aid  of  all  who  love  the  state  and  would  promote  her  true 
and  durable  good,  however  discordant  their  opinions  may  be 
on  other  subjects.  "JAMES  FENNER. 

"December  6,  1843." 

WHAT  THE  SURVEY  DISCLOSED. 

Henry  Barnard's  earlier  reports  were  made  orally  to  the 
General  Assembly,  which  as  a  state  school  committee  called 
him  into  conference  as  its  expert  adviser.  His  first  printed 
report  recapitulated  his  work  for  two  years;  it  was  almost 
encyclopaedic  in  detail,  and  presented  a  thoroughly  organized 
review  of  his  methods  and  activities.  He  visited  every  section 
of  Rhode  Island,  inspected  schoolhouses,  examined  and  ques- 
tioned teachers,  consulted  with  school  officers,  conducted  and 
addressed  public  meetings,  one  of  which  was  held  within  three 
miles  of  every  home  in  the  state.  He  drafted  school  legislation 
to  remedy  the  defects  which  he  found,  and  he  conducted  in 
every  town  and  district  of  the  state  a  "school  revival  meeting," 
knowing  full  well  that  law  becomes  effective  only  when  enacted 
with  the  consent  of  the  people,  and  when  the  sympathy  of  the 
people  is  enlisted  in  its  enforcement. 

Barnard's  Methods. — He  used  four  methods  of  ascertaining 
school  conditions,  (1)  personal  inspection  and  inquiry,  (2) 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION.  131 

circular  questionnaires  addressed  to  teachers  and  school  com- 
mittees, (3)  official  returns  and  reports,  (4)  statements  in  public 
meetings.  To  arouse  interest  and  inform  the  general  public 
and  prepare  the  way  for  a  more  complete  and  efficient  school 
system,  he  adopted  these  measures:  (1)  Public  lectures,  (2) 
conversations  and  written  communications,  (3)  circulation  of 
tracts,  periodicals  and  documents,  (4)  the  establishment  of  an 
educational  library  of  at  least  30  volumes  in  every  town,  (5) 
formation  of  associations  for  the  improvement  of  public  schools, 
(6)  assistance  to  school  committees  in  selecting  teachers,  (7) 
encouragement  of  more  extensive  employment  of  women 
teachers,  as  better  suited  for  elementary  school  teaching  and 
reducing  the  cost  of  instruction  almost  one-half,  (8)  advocating 
and  introducing  graded  schools  in  manufacturing  and  other 
populous  districts,  (9)  organizing  teachers'  associations,  (10) 
establishing  an  itinerant  normal  school  agency,  (11)  preparing 
the  way  for  the  establishment  of  at  least  one  normal  school  for 
teacher  training,  (12)  devising  and  making  known  improved 
plans  for  schoolhouse  construction,  (13)  encouraging  the  pur- 
chase and  aiding  in  the  selection  of  school  apparatus  and  school 
libraries,  (14)  encouraging  lyceums,  lecture  courses  and  library 
associations,  (15)  preparing  the  draft  of  a  school  act. 

"  During  the  five  years  of  service  of  Mr.  Barnard,"  wrote  Rev. 
E.  M.  Stone,  historian  of  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  In- 
struction, "more  than  1100  meetings  were  held  expressly  to 
discuss  topics  connected  with  public  schools,  at  which  upwards 
of  1500  addresses  were  delivered  One  hundred  and  fifty  of 
these  meetings  continued  through  the  day  and  evening,  upwards 
of  100  through  two  evenings  and  a  day,  50  through  two  days 
and  three  evenings,  and  12,  including  teachers'  institutes, 
through  the  entire  week.  In  addition  to  this  class  of  meetings 
and  addresses,  upwards  of  200  meetings  for  teachers  and 
parents  were  held  for  lectures  and  examination  of  schools. 
Besides  these  various  meetings,  experienced  teachers  were  em- 
ployed to  visit  particular  towns  and  sections  of  the  state  and 
converse  freely  with  parents  on  the  condition  and  improvement 
of  the  public  schools.  In  this  way  a  meeting  was  held  within 
three  miles  of  every  home  in  Rhode  Island.  In  addition  to  all 


132  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

this,  more  than  16,000  educational  pamphlets  and  tracts  were 
distributed  gratuitously  through  the  state,  and  one  year  no 
almanac  was  sold  in  Rhode  Island  without  at  least  16  pages  of 
educational  reading  attached.  This  statement  does  not  include 
the  official  documents  published  by  the  state,  nor  the  Journal 
of  the  Institute,  nor  upwards  of  1200  bound  volumes  on  teaching 
purchased  by  teachers  or  added  to  public  or  school  libraries. 
Before  Mr.  Barnard  left  the  state  a  library  of  at  least  500 
volumes  had  been  secured  in  29  out  of  32  towns." 

Henry  Barnard  found  the  organization  of  the  public  school 
system  weak,  largely  because  school  committees  had  not  at 
command  the  resources  necessary  for  a  vigorous  exercise  of 
powers  conferred  upon  them  by  law.  Although  he  introduced 
a  district  school  system  that  clothed  the  district  trustee — a 
new  officer  in  Rhode  Island — with  large  executive  and  adminis- 
trative powers,  thus  weakening  somewhat  the  status  of  school 
committees,  he  advocated  a  gradual  abolition  of  the  district 
system  and  the  substitution  for  it  of  a  thoroughly  organized 
town  school  system.  This  reform  required  sixty  years  for  com- 
plete accomplishment  in  Rhode  Island. 

Physical  Condition  of  Schools. — Of  the  number  and  condition 
of  schoolhouses  in  the  state  Henry  Barnard  reported  that  "405 
schoolhouses  were  required,  whereas  but  312  were  provided. 
Of  these  29  were  owned  by  towns,  147  by  proprietors  and  145 
by  school  districts.  Of  280  schoolhouses  from  which  full  returns 
were  received,  including  those  in  Providence,  25  were  in  very 
good  repair,  62  were  in  ordinary  repair,  and  86  were  pronounced 
totally  unfit  for  school  purposes;*  65  were  located  in  the  public 
highway,  180  directly  on  the  line  of  the  road,  without  any 
yard  or  outbuildings  attached,  and  but  21  had  a  playground 
attached.  In  over  200  schoolhouses  the  average  height  was 
less  than  eight  feet,  without  any  opening  in  the  ceiling  or  any 

*Compare  Horace  Mann's  report  (1846)  :  "In  1837  not  one-third  of  the  public  school- 
houses  of  Massachusetts  would  have  been  considered  tenantable  by  any  decent  family  out 
of  the  poorhouse  or  in  it."  And  see  Young's  report  (New  York,  1844)  :  "One-third  only 
of  the  whole  number  of  schoolhouses  visited  were  found  in  good  repair,  another  third  in 
ordinary  and  comfortable  condition  only  in  this  respect — in  other  words,  barely  sufficient 
for  the  convenience  and  accommodation  of  the  teacher  and  pupils,  while  the  remainder, 
consisting  of  3319,  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes  unfit  for  the  reception  of  man  or  beast." 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION.  133 

other  effectual  means  of  ventilation.  .  .  .  Two  hundred 
and  seventy  schools  were  unfurnished  with  a  clock,  blackboard 
or  thermometer,  and  only  five  were  provided  with  a  scraper  and 
mat  for  the  feet."  He  found  the  schoolhouses  (1)  too  small  and 
not  appropriately  fitted  up,  (2)  badly  lighted,  (3)  improperly 
ventilated,  (4)  imperfectly  warmed,  (5)  supplied  with  desks  and 
seats  which  were  crude  and  unsuited  to  physical  needs  and 
convenience  of  pupils,  (6)  wanting  the  ordinary  accessories, 
such  as  blackboards,  clocks,  maps,  thermometers  and  other 
apparatus  and  fixtures  which  are  indispensable  to  well-regulated 
and  well-instructed  schools,  and  (7)  deficient  in  arrangements 
"which  help  to  promote  habits  of  order  and  neatness,  and 
cultivate  delicacy  of  manners  and  refinement  of  feeling."  In 
some  distri  cts  apartments  in  old  shops  or  dwellings  were  used  as 
schoolrooms.  In  many  instances  districts  paid  to  the  pro- 
prietors rents  that  exceeded  the  interest  on  the  cost  of  new 
and  improved  schoolhouses. 

To  remedy  these  conditions,  the  General  Assembly,  in  Jan- 
uary, 1844,  empowered  school  districts  to  purchase,  secure, 
hold  and  convey  land  for  schoolhouses;  to  build,  hire  and  repair 
school  buildings;  to  equip  schoolhouses  with  furniture,  appara- 
tus and  blackboards,  and  to  levy  and  collect  taxes  for  these 
purposes.  At  the  October  session  in  the  same  year  the  School 
Agent  was  authorized  to  prepare,  print  and  distribute  a  docu- 
ment describing  and  presenting  approved  plans  for  school  build- 
ings, furniture  and  furnishings,  ventilation,  heating  and  lighting. 
A  pamphlet  of  72  pages,  with  50  illustrations,  was  distributed. 
Summarizing  results  achieved  in  two  years,  Mr.  Barnard  wrote : 

If  the  same  progress  can  be  made  for  three  years  more,  Rhode 
Island  can  claim  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  school  districts 
more  specimens  of  good  houses  and  fewer  dilapidated,  incon- 
venient and  unhealthy  structures  of  the  kind  than  any  6ther 
state.  To  bring  about  thus  early  this  great  and  desirable  result 
I  can  suggest  nothing  beyond  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 


134  PUBLIC  EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

same  measures  which  have  proved  so  successful  during  the  past 
two  years." 

School  Attendance. — School  attendance  was  found  to  be  un- 
satisfactory. Estimating  the  number  of  children  in  the  state 
aged  between  4  and  15  years  as  30,000,  24,000  attended  public 
and  private  schools,  of  whom  21,000  attended  public  schools, 
but  of  these  only  18,000  were  within  school  age,  and  one-third 
attended  irregularly.  Far  too  many  children  of  school  age 
attended  no  school  and  received  no  instruction.  Henry  Barnard 
suggested  these  remedies:  (1)  A  regular  tune  each  year  for 
the  school  term,  (2)  a  regular  time  for  admitting  pupils,  (3)  a 
regular  time  for  beginning  school  sessions,  (4)  forfeiture  of  school 
privileges  for  poor  attendance,  (5)  regular  attendance,  (6)  care- 
ful records  of  attendance  and  class  work  and  standing,  (7)  weekly 
and  monthly  reports  to  parents,  (8)  specified  holidays  and  no 
others.  Modern  educators,  of  course,  would  reject  exclusion 
from  school  as  a  remedy  for  poor  attendance.  The  School 
Agent  recommended  as  part  of  his  school  law  the  act  of  1840 
that  required  children  under  12  employed  in  factories  to  attend 
school  three  months  a  year.  Compulsory  attendance  appeared 
nowhere  else  in  his  list  of  remedies.  He  would  improve  schools, 
make  them  attractive,  insist  upon  regularity  in  term  and  time, 
and  depend  upon  these  factors  to  draw  children  to  school. 

Among  other  improvements  sorely  needed,  Mr.  Barnard 
suggested  graded  schools  and  graded  courses  of  study,  if  any 
advance  were  to  be  made  beyond  schooling  of  the  most  ele- 
mentary-primary type,  with  special  attention  to  adapting  the 
work  of  the  schools  to  the  community.  Henry  Barnard  be- 
lieved that  populous  manufacturing  districts  would  become 
the  homes  of  thriving  schools.  In  this  he  proved  to  be  in  error. 

Legislation  Needed. — Henry  Barnard  found  these  defects  in 
school  laws:  (1)  Want  of  a  systematic  digest,  (2)  restriction 
on  the  amount  of  money  which  towns  were  permitted  to  raise 


SURVEY  AND  REORGANIZATION.  135 

for  school  support,  (3)  no  check  upon  the  creation  of  weak  school 
districts,  (4)  absence  of  conditions  which  should  lead  towns  to 
supplement  state  appropriations,  (5)  want  of  a  rule  governing 
the  apportionment  of  school  money  to  school  districts,  (6)  want 
of  adequate  means  of  preparing  teachers,  (7)  absence  of  a  system 
of  inspection  and  supervision,  (8)  want  of  suitable  provision  for 
uniformity  of  textbooks,  (9)  absence  of  restriction  on  waste  of 
school  money,  (10)  want  of  a  tribunal  for  settling  cheaply  school 
disputes,  (11)  want  of  provision  for  uniform  and  efficient  ad- 
ministration, (12)  want  of  measures  of  progress  by  neglect  to 
require  adequate  reports.  He  suggested  the  following  reme- 
dies: (1)  A  reorganization  of  the  school  administrative  system 
in  three  orders,  state,  town  and  district;  (2)  supplementing 
state  support  of  public  schools  by  required  town  taxes,  registry 
taxes,  and  rate  bills  where  necessary,  districts  to  provide  school- 
houses  and  parents  to  furnish  books  and  stationery;  (3)  grading 
of  schools;  (4)  certification  of  teachers;  (5)  adaptation  of  courses 
of  study  to  town  needs,  towns  to  select  courses  of  study,  subject 
to  advice  of  the  state  department;  (6)  a  school  year  of  not  less 
than  four  months;  (7)  supervision  of  schools  by  district  trustees, 
town  school  committees,  county  inspectors  and  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Schools;  (8)  establishment  of  a  normal  school; 
(9)  establishment  of  school  libraries,  open  to  use  by  the  general 
public;  (10)  diffusion  of  information  about  schools  by  printed 
reports  and  public  meetings  and  addresses. 

Many  of  his  recommendations  were  incorporated  in  the  draft 
of  a  new  school  law,  which,  with  remarks  by  the  agent  explaining 
the  various  sections,  was  ordered  printed  at  the  May  session, 
1844,  and  was  passed,  after  discussion  and  amendment,  in  1845, 
to  go  into  effect  after  the  October  session  in  that  year;* 

*  The  Barnard  school  act—  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  in  propor- 

1.  Prescribed    the    appointment    of    a  tion  to  population  under  15;    to  be  desig- 
Commissioner    of   Public    Schools   by   the  nated  teachers'  money  and  used  exclusively 
Governor,  at  a  compensation  to  be  fixed  by  for  the  payment  of  teachers'  wages;  to  be 
the  General  Assembly.  supplemented  by  town  appropriations  of  at 

2.  Provided  for  an  annual  appropria-  least  one-third  the  amount  received  from 
tion  of  $25,000,  to  be  apportioned  by  the  the     state. — Henry     Barnard     advocated 


136 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 


THE  BARNARD  SCHOOL  LAW. 

The  fundamental  features  of  the  Barnard  school  act  may  be 
summarized  as  follows  : 

1.  Organization  of  town  schools  as   a  quasi-state  system, 
with  a  state  officer,  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  to 
administer  the  system. 

2.  Supervision  of  schools  by  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  county  inspectors  appointed  by  him,  school  committees 
and  school  trustees. 


town  appropriations  at  least  equalling  state 
school  money. 

3.  Authorized,  empowered  and  ordered 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  (1)  to 
apportion  state  school  money  and  draw 
orders  on  the  general  treasury  for  its  dis- 
tribution, (2)  to  prepare  suitable  forms  for 
school  reports  required   from   towns,    (3) 
to  adjust  and  decide  without  cost  disputes 
arising  under  the  school  law  when  sub- 
mitted to  him  for  adjustment,  his  decision 
to  be  final  when  approved  by  one  justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  (4)  to  visit  as  often 
as  practicable  every  school  district  in  the 
state   for  the   purpose   of  inspecting  the 
schools  and  diffusing  as  widely  as  possible 
by  public  addresses  and  personal  commu- 
nications with  school  officers,  teachers  and 
parents   a  knowledge   of   existing  defects 
and  desirable  improvements  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  system,  and  the  govern- 
ment and  instruction  of  the  schools,  (5)  to 
recommend     textbooks    and     secure    uni- 
formity  if   practicable  in   at  least   every 
town,    (6)    to    assist    in  establishing    and 
selecting  books  for  school  libraries,  (7)  to 
establish    teachers'     institutes    and     one 
thoroughly  organized  normal  school,  (8)  to 
appoint  county  inspectors  to  serve  without 
compensation,  visit  schools  and  examine 
teachers,  (9)  to  grant  certificates  to  teachers 
examined   and    approved    by    county    in- 
spectors, (10)  to  keep  records  and  report 
to  the  General  Assembly  (a)  his  own  doings, 
(b)  the  condition  of  schools,  (c)  plans  and 
suggestions   for  improvement   of   schools, 
and  (d)  on  other  matters. 

4.  Imposed   upon   towns   the   duty   of 
providing  for  the  education  of  all  children 
residing  within  their  respective  limits:    (1) 
By    establishing,    altering    or    abolishing 
primary  school  districts,  provided  that  no 


district  be  formed  with  less  than  40  pupils 
without  the  consent  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  and  none  by  the  division 
of  a  populous  district  where  graded  schools 
could  be  conveniently  established.  (2)  By 
establishing  and  maintaining  a  sufficient 
number  of  public  schools  of  different 
grades,  conveniently  located,  under  the 
management  and  regulation  of  a  school 
committee.  (3)  By  raising  money  for  the 
support  of  schools  by  taxation,  no  town  to 
receive  state  school  money  unless  it  raised 
at  least  one-third  as  much  as  its  apportion- 
ment of  state  school  money.  (4)  By  elect- 
ing a  school  committee  of  three,  six,  nine  or 
twelve  residents. 

5.  Prescribed  the  powers  and  duties  of 
school  committees  as  (1)  to  organize  by 
electing  a  chairman  and  clerk,  (2)  to  meet 
quarterly  in  January,  April,  July  and  Octo- 
ber, (3)  to  alter  district  lines  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  town  or  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  (4)  to  locate  schoolhouse 
sites  and  not  to  abandon  or  change  a  site 
without  due  cause,  (5)  to  examine  and  cer- 
tificate teachers  for  schools  within  the 
town,  (6)  to  annul  teachers'  certificates  for 
inability  disclosed  by  trial  or  for  miscon- 
duct, (7)  to  visit  and  examine  schools  at 
least  twice  each  term,  (8)  to  suspend  or 
expel  incorrigibly  bad  pupils,  (9)  to  make 
general  rules  and  regulations  for  the  govern- 
ment of  schools,  (10)  to  fill  vacancies  in  the 
committee  caused  by  resignation,  death  or 
removal,  (11)  to  apportion  state  school 
money  to  districts,  one-half  equally  and 
one-half  in  proportion  to  average  daily 
attendance,  (12)  to  apportion  town  school 
money  to  districts  according  to  the  order 
of  the  town,  (13)  to  apportion  school  money 
only  to  districts  which  returned  the  reports 
required  by  the  committee  and  the  Com- 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION. 


137 


3.  A  system  of  schools  reports:     (1)  District  reports  to  town 
school  committees,  (2)  school  committee  reports  to  the  town, 
to  be  read  in  town  meeting  or  printed  and  distributed,  (3)  school 
committee  reports  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  and 
(4)  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of   Public  Schools  to  the 
General  Assembly,  with  recommendations  and  suggestions  for 
improvements. 

4.  A  tribunal  for  the  adjustment  of  disputes  arising  under  the 
school  law.     The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  em- 
powered to  hear  and  decide,  without  costs,  appeals  addressed  to 
him,  thus  obviating  necessity  for  actions  at  law  or  petitions  to 
the  General  Assembly. 


missioner  of  Public  Schools,  and  which 
maintained  a  school  at  least  four  months  a 
year  taught  by  a  qualified  teacher  in  a 
schoolhouse  approved  by  the  school  com- 
mittee, (14)  to  report  annually  to  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  and  by 
printed  or  written  document  to  the  annual 
town  meeting,  the  report  to  be  read  if  not 
printed  and  distributed,  (15)  to  exercise  in 
towns  not  divided  into  districts  the  powers 
otherwise  assigned  to  district  trustees,  (16) 
to  conduct  a  school  and  employ  a  teacher  for 
any  school  district  in  which  the  trustees 
neglected  or  refused  for  nine  months  to 
conduct  a  school,  (17)  to  exercise  all  the 
powers  and  perform  the  duties  of  trustees 
in  school  districts  which  voted,  with  the 
consent  of  the  committee,  to  devolve  such 
powers  upon  the  committee,  (18)  to  send 
children  to  school  in  adjacent  towns  if 
more  convenient  and  to  pay  a  proportionate 
part  of  the  cost  of  such  schools. 

6.  Prescribed  rules  for  the  organization 
of  school  districts,  for  their  consolidation 
and  division,  and  for  the  time  and  place  of 
holding  school  district  meetings. 

7.  Defined    the    corporate    powers    of 
school  districts:    (1)  To  prosecute  and  de- 
fend actions  at  law,  (2)  to  purchase,  re- 
ceive,  hold  and   convey  school  property, 
(3)    to   build,   purchase,    hire   and   repair 
schoolhouses  and  furnish   and   equip  the 
same,    provided    that   plans    for    building 
and  repairing  must  be  approved  by  the 
school  committee  or  the  Commissioner  of 


Public  Schools,  (4)  to  establish  school 
libraries,  (5)  to  employ  teachers,  (6)  to 
raise  money  by  tax  on  ratable  estates  for 
school  purposes,  and  to  fix  a  rate  of  tuition 
to  be  paid  by  parents,  employers  or  guard- 
ians of  children  in  attendance  not  to  ex- 
ceed $1  for  each  term  of  three  months, 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  school  com- 
mittee, (7)  to  elect  trustees,  and  (8)  to 
elect  a  clerk,  collector  and  treasurer  for 
the  district  to  attend  to  the  details  of 
levying  and  collecting  school  district  taxes 
in  manner  provided  by  the  act. 

8.  Defined  the  powers  and  duties  of 
school  trustees:     (1)  To  have  the  custody 
of  schoolhouses  and  other  district  property, 
(2)  to  give  notice  of  district  meetings,  (3) 
to  employ  one  or  more  qualified  teachers 
for    each    50    scholars    in    average    daily 
attendance,  provide  schoolrooms  and  fur- 
nish fuel  properly  prepared  for  burning, 
(4)  to  visit  each  school  at  least  twice  each 
term,   (5)   to  see  that  scholars  were  pro- 
vided  with   books,   and   upon   neglect  'of 
parents  or  guardians  (after  notice)  to  pro- 
vide books  for  scholars  at  the  expense  of 
the  district  and  charge  the  cost  upon  tax 
or  rate  bills,  (6)  to  make  out  tax  and  rate 
bills,  (7)  to  report  to  the  school  committee. 

9.  Permitted  towns  (1)  to  establish  pub- 
lic school  libraries,  for  use  by  the  inhabi- 
tants generally  and  to  be  located  in  one 
place  or  transferred  in  whole  or  in  parts  to 
different    sections    of    the    town;     (2)    to 
assume  the  burden   of  providing  school- 


138 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 


5.  School  support  by  (1)  an  annual  state  appropriation,  to 
be  used  exclusively  for  payment  of  teachers'  wages,  and  to  be 
apportioned  (a)  to  the  towns  on  the  basis  of  population  under  15, 
and  (b)  in  the  towns  to  school  districts,  one-half  equally  and 
one-half  in  proportion  to  average  daily  attendance;  (2)  required 
supplementary  town  appropriations  equal  to  at  least  one-third 
the  town's  share  in  state  school  money;   (3)  permissible  town 
and  district  taxation  and  appropriations  for  school  support  with 
no  maximum  limitation;  (4)  rate  bills,  if  necessary  to  make  up 
deficiencies  of  state,  town  and  district  appropriations,  limited 
however,  to  one  dollar  per  pupil  per  term  of  three  months. 

6.  Town   responsibility   for   the   provision  of   educational 
opportunities  for  all  resident  children.     Parental  responsibility 


houses,  imposed  by  the  law  upon  school 
districts;  (3)  to  conduct  schools  at  option 
upon  the  town  or  district  plan. 

10.  Permitted  adjoining  primary  school 
districts  to  combine  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  secondary  or  grammar  schools 
for    more    advanced    pupils,    under    the 
management  of  a  secondary  school  com- 
mittee in  which  each  district  was  repre- 
sented, and  taught  by  a  teacher  holding  a 
certificate  of  qualification  issued  by  the 
county  inspector  or  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools. 

11.  Permitted   contiguous   districts   or 
parts  of  contiguous  districts  in  adjoining 
towns,  with  the  consent  of  the  towns,  to 
form  union  districts  for  the  support  of  a 
single  district  school. 

12.  Required  teachers  (1)  to  hold  cer- 
tificates signed  by  the  town  school  com- 
mittee, the  county  inspector  or  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools,  which  certifi- 
cates were  valid  (a),  respectively,  for  one, 
two  and  three  years,  and  (b),  respectively, 
in  the  town,  county  and  throughout  the 
state,  and   could  be  issued  only  after  the 
person  named  therein  had  produced  evi- 
dence of  good  moral  character,  and  had 
been  found,  on  examination  or  by  expe- 
rience, qualified  to  teach  the  English  lan- 
guage,   arithmetic,    penmanship    and    the 
rudiments  of  geography  and  history,  and 
to  govern  a  school;   and  (2)  to  keep  school 
registers  of  attendance  and  of  visits  by 
trustees,  school  committees,  inspectors,  the 


Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and  other 
persons. 

13.  Provided  an  annual  appropriation 
of  $100  for  a  school  for  the  Narragansett 
Indians. 

14.  Required  town  clerks  to  record  all 
votes  and  proceedings  relating  to  schools 
in  a  book  provided  for  that  purpose;    to 
receive  and  keep  reports  and  documents 
addressed  to  the  town,  and  to  receive  and 
forward   communications  from  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools. 

15.  Required  town  treasurers  to  keep 
separate  accounts  of  school  money,  to  re- 
ceive and  to  pay  it  out  upon  proper  orders, 
and  to  notify  the  school  committee  within 
one  week  after  the  regular  town  meeting  of 
the  amount  of  money  available  for  school 
purposes  and  the  sources  from  which  it  was 
derived. 

16.  Forbade  and  provided  a  penalty  for 
misapplication  of  school  money. 

17.  Excluded  Providence  from  the  pro- 
visions of  the  act,  except  as  to  sharing  in 
the  distribution  of  school  money,  and  con- 
firmed the  special  legislation  enacted  for ' 
Providence  and  Newport. 

18.  Provided  that  no  child  could  be 
excluded  from  the  school  in  the  district  in 
which  he  resided  or  from  the  nearest  public 
school  in  towns  where  there  were  no  dis- 
tricts, unless  by  general  rule,  and  in  no 
case  for  inability  of  the  parents  or  guardian 
or  employer  of  the  child  to  pay  taxes,  rates 
or    assessments    for    any    school    purpose 
whatsoever. 


SURVEY  AND   REORGANIZATION.  139 

for  books,  stationery  and  tuition,  but  provision  for  absolutely 
free  education  for  poor  children. 

7.  Organization  of  the  town  school  system,  at  the  option  of 
the  town,  upon  the  district  or  town  plan;    definition  of  the 
powers  of  school  committees  and  school  trustees;    limitation 
upon  the  creation  of  weak  school  districts  and  upon  the  division 
of  populous  towns  and  districts. 

8.  Power  for  towns  and  districts  to  acquire,  hold  and  convey 
property  for  school  purposes;   to  build,  purchase,  hire,  repair 
and  maintain  schoolhouses;   to  equip  schoolhouses  and  school 
rooms  with  furniture  and  apparatus,  district  schoolhouses  and 
plans  for  building  and  repair  to  be  approved  by  the  school  com- 
mittee or  the.  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

9.  The  duty  of  districts  (or  towns)  to  provide  schoolrooms, 
hire  teachers  and  provide  fuel;   parents  to  provide  books  and 
stationery. 

10.  Measures  for  school  improvement:     (1)   A  minimum 
school  year — not  less  than  four  months;    (2)  limitation  of  the 
size  of  classes  to  50  pupils  per  teacher;    (3)  limitation  on  the 
creation  of  weak  districts;    (4)  graded  schools  and  courses  of 
study  where  practicable. 

11.  Measures  for  the  improvement  of  teachers:     (1)  Teach- 
ers' meetings,  addresses  and  teachers'  institutes,  and  (2)  the 
organization  of  a  normal  school  for  teacher  training. 

12.  Certification  of  teachers  by  school  committee,  county 
inspector  or  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  and  definite 
statement  of  the  subjects  required  for  qualification.     The  longer 
term  for  state  certificates  and  their  validity  throughout  the 
state  and  in  the  union  grammar  schools  was  an  inducement  to 
teachers  to  seek  these  certificates. 

An  Evaluation  of  the  Barnard  Act. — The  advances  in  the 
Barnard  school  law  were:  (1)  The  creation  of  a  state  organiza- 
tion, (2)  compulsory  support  of  schools  by  towns,  (3)  ample 


140  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

powers  conferred  on  towns  to  build  and  acquire  schoolhouses, 
(4)  restriction  on  the  creation  of  weak  school  districts,  (5)  cer- 
tification of  teachers,  (6)  a  minimum  school  year,  (7)  restriction 
on  the  size  of  classes,  (8)  state  supervision,  (9)  school  reports. 
The  most  serious  defect  in  the  law  was  the  creation  of  the  office 
of  school  trustee,  with  powers  likely  to  bring  him  into  conflict 
with  the  school  committee.  This  created  a  division  of  authority 
and  was  a  concession  to  local  autonomy  inconsistent  with  the 
tendency  to  centralization  of  authority  evidenced  in  the  organi- 
zation of  a  state  department  of  education.  Other  defects  were 
(1)  the  exclusion  of  Providence  from  the  law  and  the  tacit 
recognition  of  two  standards  for  schools — a  city  standard  and 
a  rural  standard ;  (2)  the  omission  of  a  compulsory  attendance 
provision  or  remedies  for  truancy,  and  (3)  provision  for  a  normal 
school  without  an  appropriation  or  other  means  of  making  it 
possible. 

Henry  Barnard,  Commissioner. — Henry  Barnard  was  ap- 
pointed Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  under  the  act  of  1845, 
remaining  in  office  until  1849,  when  he  resigned  because  of 
failing  health.  He  was  then  38  years  of  age;  he  lived  for  half 
a  century  thereafter,  dying  in  1900,  after  years  of  splendid 
service  for  public  education,  including  a  short  term  as  the  first 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education.  Besides  his  oral 
reports  to  the  General  Assembly,  his  Journal  of  the  Institute  of 
Instruction,  in  three  volumes,  and  a  final  report  made  in  1849 
epitomized  his  work  in  Rhode  Island.  Of  his  report  for  1849, 
250  pages  deal  with  school  architecture  and  140  with  libraries. 
In  his  five  years  as  agent  and  Commissioner  in  Rhode  Island 
Henry  Barnard  labored  assiduously,  while  his  health  permitted, 
to  carry  into  full  effect  the  reforms  which  he  projected.  Most 
of  all,  improvement  was  made  in  the  physical  character  of 
schoolhouses  and  equipment,  and  in  the  personnel,  methods  and 
spirit  of  teachers — two  of  the  most  important  elements  in  a 
system  of  schools.  Among  the  people  of  the  state  he  aroused 


SURVEY  AND  REORGANIZATION.  141 

wholesome  interest  in  schools.  He  was  enabled  to  demonstrate 
the  wisdom  of  his  recommendations,  although  complete  realiza- 
tion of  many  of  them  was  deferred,  in  some  instances,  for  years. 
His  school  law,  although  many  times  revised  and  amended,  is 
still  the  foundation  of  Rhode  Island  school  law.  Rhode  Island 
was  fortunate,  indeed,  in  obtaining  for  the  great  survey  of 
1843^15,  antedating  as  it  did  by  almost  seventy  years  the 
modern  survey,  a  school  system  at  once  adequate  for  that 
time,  and  sufficiently  adaptable  to  changing  conditions  to 
warrant  its  continuance.  There  has  been  no  radical  change  in 
school  administration  and  policy  in  the  state  since  1845,  and 
yet  the  period  has  witnessed  continued  and  continuous  progress. 
There  has  been  evolution  and  growth  without  reconstruction. 
Improvement  has  been  the  natural  outgrowth  or  the  realization 
of  suggestions  made  by  Henry  Barnard,  and  of  foundations  well 
established.  There  can  be  no  greater  monument  to  the  memory 
of  Henry  Barnard  than  the  school  system  which  he  helped 
Hhode  Island  to  reorganize. 

THE  AFTERMATH  OF.  THE  SURVEY. 

The  Rhode  Island  school  law  of  1845  and  the  labors  of  Henry 
Barnard  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  Rhode  Island 
school  history — ".new,"  because,  historians  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding, there  were  schools  in  Rhode  Island  and  a  history 
of  schools  before  Rhode  Island  called  Henry  Barnard;  "an 
epoch,"  because  the  change  from  old  to  new  was  fraught  with  so 
much  import,  and  "the  beginning,"  because  so  much  of  what 
Henry  Barnard  projected  was  destined  to  be  realized  only  years 
after  his  retirement.  Thus  Rhode  Island  school  history  neither 
•ended  with  the  advent  of  Henry  Barnard,  nor  began  with  his 
coming.  Henry  Barnard's  service  to  Rhode  Island  was  unique, 
quantitatively,  in  the  immense  immediate  physical  improvement 
accomplished  in  half  a  decade,  and  in  the  no  less  appreciable 
•enrichment  of  public  opinion;  and  qualitatively,  in  the  elements 


142  PUBLIC  EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

of  merit  which  made  his  system  adaptable  in  detail  to  a  changing 
environment  while  fundamentally  permanently  satisfactory. 

Much  as  Henry  Barnard  accomplished,  more  remained  to  be 
done.  Schoolhouses  were  still  needed  in  districts  in  which  the 
awakening  had  been  delayed;  school  districts  that  had  built 
splendid  schoolhouses  needed  a  spur  to  continue  their  endeavors, 
if  not,  indeed,  a  reawakening  from  a  reaction  and  exhaustion 
consequent  upon  overexertion  in  the  "revival"  period.  There 
were  school  districts  in  the  state  in  which  the  building  of  school- 
houses  was  a  "standing  bugbear  to  further  improvements  in 
their  neighborhood.  They  are,"  wrote  Commissioner  John 
Kingsbury  in  1859,  "like  expensive  dwelling  houses,  whose 
owners  have  so  crippled  themselves  in  building  that  they  cannot 
afford  to  live  in  their  houses  after  they  are  built.  In  respect 
to  such  schoolhouses,  the  standing  argument  is,  we  have  ex- 
pended so  much  money  in  building  our  house  that  we  cannot 
afford  to  tax  ourselves  for  a  good  school."  Commissioner 
Potter,  Henry  Barnard's  immediate  successor,  doubted  the 
wisdom  of  enforced  town  support  to  supplement  state  school 
money,  suggesting  that  progress  might  be  more  rapid  if  the 
state  assumed  the  entire  burden.  He  realized  keenly  the  need 
of  more  money  to  improve  schools.  Problems  of  physical 
equipment  and  adequate  support  continued  to  be  perplexing — 
but  these  problems  never  can  be  solved  beyond  the  ever  present, 
and  the  immediate  future. 

The  Barnard  school  law  and  the  Barnard  programme  for 
future  improvement  created  new  problems.  The  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools — a  new  officer — must  find  his  proper  place  in 
the  system.  Was  he  destined  to  become  merely  a  ministerial 
educational  secretary  for  the  General  Assembly,  a  collector  of 
reports  and  a  statistician?  Or  was  he  to  become  the  respected 
adviser  of  the  General  Assembly,  a  leader  moulding  public 
opinion  in  educational  matters,  and  the  repository  of  an  au- 
thority in  school  administration  which  inferior  school  officials 
must  recognize?  A  town  system,  of  school  administration,  to 


SURVEY   AND  REORGANIZATION.  143 

replace  the  district  system,  remained  to  be  perfected.  Pro- 
vision for  the  normal  school  for  teacher  training  lay  in  the 
future.  The  Barnard  plan  to  encourage  a  higher  qualification 
for  teachers  by  state  certification  failed  in  the  first  trial,  although 
years  afterward  Rhode  Island  assumed  leadership  in  perfecting 
state  certification.  The  public  schools  under  the  Barnard  law 
were  not  free  schools,  as  they  must  become  eventually.  The 
people  needed  more  education  of  the  liberal  kind  expounded 
by  Henry  Barnard  to  carry  them  beyond  the  level  reached  in 
the  "revival"  period  to  a  clear  vision  of  the  necessity  for 
adequate  support  of  schools  free  for  everybody.  Henry  Bar- 
nard, as  later  experience  proved,  had  not  approached  a  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  universal  education  involved  in  school 
attendance.  His  theory  that  the  quality  of  good  schools  and 
an  aroused  public  interest  were  sufficient  to  insure  ample  pro- 
vision for  the  education  of  the  rising  generation  was  Utopian. 
It  pandered  to  the  strong  individualism  still  surviving  in  Rhode 
Island.  Drastic  compulsory  attendance  and  truancy  laws 
proved  to  be  necessary.  Grading  of  schools  and  of  courses  of 
study,  as  outlined  by  Henry  Barnard,  was  but  a  meagre  be- 
ginning of  public  support  for  education  beyond  primary  ele- 
mentary schools.  Even  the  Barnard  school  law,  compre- 
hensive as  it  was  in  its  detail  and  in  its  definition  of  rights, 
powers  and  duties,  needed  amendment  almost  immediately  to 
adapt  it  to  existing  conditions — but  that  is  a  characteristic  of 
all  statutes.  Experience  is  the  crucible  in  which  law  is  refined 
and  perfected. 

The  major  problems  awaiting  solution  in   1845  were  these: 

1.  Provision  of  adequate  support  for  schools. 

2.  Abolition  of  tuition  charges  and  textbooks  exactions. 

3.  Increasing  school  attendance. 

4.  Provision  for  teacher  training. 

5.  Town  school  administration — the  district  problem. 

6.  Orientation  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 


144  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

ADEQUATE  SUPPORT  FOR  SCHOOLS. 

The  assured  sources  of  school  support  under  the  Barnard  act 
were  an  anuual  state  appropriation  of  $25,000  and  registry 
taxes  under  the  Constitution.  The  obligation  of  towns  was 
stated  thus  :  "  To  provide  for  the  education  of  all  the  children 
residing  within  their  respective  limits,  the  several  towns  are 
empowered  and  it  shall  be  their  duty  ...  to  maintain  a 
sufficient  number  of  public  schools  .  .  .  and  ...  to 
raise  by  tax  .  .  .  such  sums  of  money  for  the  support  of 
public  schools  as  they  shall  judge  necessary  .  .  .  provided 
'that  a  sum  equal  to  one-third  the  amount  received  from  the 
general  treasury  for  the  support  of  public  schools  for  the  year 
next  preceding  shall  be  raised  before  any  town  shall  be  entitled 
to  receive  its  proportion  of  the  annual  state  appropriation." 
The  construction  of  this  declaration  of  the  town's  duty  as 
mandatory,  and  as  compelling  town  support  of  schools  supple- 
mentary to  state  support  and  sufficient  in  amount  to  insure 
schools,  was  inhibited  by  later  sections  of  the  same  act,  which 
empowered  school  districts  to  assess  taxes  for  school  support 
and  to  collect  tuition  from  scholars  by  rate  bill.  The  revised 
school  law  of  1851  confirmed  the  weaker  interpretation  by  its 
provision  that  "towns  may  establish  and  maintain  ...  a 
sufficient  number  of  public  schools."  As  a  matter  of  fact  and 
of  law,  neither  act  imposed  any  enforceable  obligation  upon 
the  towns;  the  coercion  that  .the  state  might  exercise  in 
compelling  town  support  of  schools  was  limited  to  requiring 
application  of  state  school  money  to  the  purposes  for  which  it 
was  distributed,  and  the  withholding  of  state  school  money  for 
failure  to  raise  by  taxation  at  least  one-third  as  much  as  the 
state  apportioned.  In  1846  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
was  authorized  to  remit  forfeitures;  but  this  leniency  to  de- 
linquent towns  proved  demoralizing  rather  than  corrective. 
It  permitted  a  town  to  forfeit,  reform  the  following  year,  and 


SURVEY  AND   REORGANIZATION.  145 

draw  two  years  school  money  for  the  support  of  schools  kept 
only  one  year.  In  1848  the  share  of  state  school  money  which 
any  town  forfeited  by  failure  to  assess  a  tax  for  school  support 
was  ordered  covered  into  the  permanent  school  fund.  This  is 
one  forfeiture  which  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  may 
not  remit. 

Weakness  of  the  Law  Remedied. — The  weakness  of  the  state's 
position  under  the  laws  was  clearly  understood.  Commis- 
sioners of  Public  Schools  were  obliged  occasionally  to  report  the 
failure  of  a  town  to  raise  its  quota,  or  that  "every  town  in  the 

state,  but  • "  had  complied  with  the  school  law.  The 

Supreme  Court  in  1881  confirmed  the  recognized  interpretation 
of  the  law,  declaring  that  the  statutes  permitted  but  did  not 
obligate  towns  to  maintain  public  schools.  Wixon  vs.  New- 
port, 13  R.  I.  454;  approved  21  R.  I.  29.  In  1882  the  duty  of 
towns  to  support  public  schools  was  made  mandatory  ;  in  the 
Public  Statutes  the  words  "shall  maintain"  replaced  the  words 
"may  maintain,"  and  the  town  system  of  schools  became  a  state 
system,  at  last. 

As  between  towns  and  districts  the  power  to  compel  support 
was  somewhat  more  ample,  though  still  deficient.  Under  the 
Barnard  act  school  committees  were  empowered,  "if  any  dis- 
trict shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  establish  a  school  and  employ  a 
teacher  for  the  same  for  nine  months  ...  to  establish  such 
school  and  employ  a  teacher  for  the  same  as  the  trustees  might 
have  done."  In  1846  the  period  of  neglect  or  refusal  which 
would  permit  a  school  committee  to  act  was  reduced  to  six 
months.  But  there  the  town's  power  to  deal  with  the  district 
ended,  beyond  the  right  to  withhold  state  and  town  school 
money  and  registry  taxes.  There  was  no  method  of  compelling 
the  taxpayers  of  a  refractory  district  to  pay  an  additional 
assessment  for  the  support  of  the  district  school  thus  thrust 
upon  the  town.  As  a  last  resort,  however,  the  town  might 


146  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

have  recourse  to  its  right,  through  its  school  committee,  to 
discontinue  the  district,*  to  alter  its  boundaries,  or  to  divide  the 
district  and  annex  the  parts  to  other  districts.  The  right  of  a 
town  to  abolish  all  districts  and  assume  complete  control  of  its 
school  system,  without  regard  to  districts,  seems  to  have  been 
in  doubt  after  1846,  when  a  statute  confirmed  existing  district 
boundaries,  leaving  them  subject  to  alteration  only  by  the 
school  committee.  In  1884  towns  were  given  authority  and 
power  to  abolish  districts. 

State  Support  Increased —  For  want  of  adequate  legislation  to 
compel  town  support  of  schools,  and  because  the  spirit  of  local 
autonomy  was  sufficiently  strong  in  the  General  Assembly  to 
defeat  proposed  legislation,  as  it  had  Henry  Barnard's  rec- 
ommendation of  town  support  to  equal  state  support,  the  state 
itself  must  finance  projects  for  school  improvement.  The 
difference  between  state  and  town  support,  ultimately,  is  a 
question  of  public  policy  in  distributing  the  burden  of  taxation. 
State  school  support  is  a  device  for  placing  upon  the  taxable 
property  of  the  entire  commonwealth  the  cost  of  school  main- 
tenance; it  rallies  wealthy  communities  to  the  assistance  of 
their  poorer  neighbors.  It  should  enable  the  weakest  and 
poorest  community  to  maintain  for  its  children  schools  of 
standard  quality.  Thus  state  support  is  consistent  with  the 
educational  principle  that  there  shall  be  one  standard  for  all 
the  schools  of  the  commonwealth,  and  with  modern  political 
and  social  theory  that  the  state  is  responsible  for  the  education 
of  all  its  citizens.  Whatever  might  be  the  motive  that 
actuated  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly  in  refusing  to 
impose  upon  their  constituents,  the  taxpayers  of  the  towns 
which  they  represented,  an  irrecusable  obligation  to  assess 
themselves  for  school  support,  Rhode  Island  was  committed  to 
what  was  ultimately  probably  a  wiser  policy. 

*Bull  vs.  School  Committee,  11  R.  I.  244. 


SURVEY   AND    REORGANIZATION.  147 

In  1849  the  General  Assembly  voted  to  assess  a  tax  of  three 
cents  on  every  $100  of  taxable  property  in  the  state,  $10,000 
of  the  proceeds  to  be  applied  to  school  support,  and  the  balance 
to  payment  of  the  debt  of  the  state,  including  the  state's  debt 
to  the  United  States  deposit  fund,  and  to  ordeis  of  the  General 
Assembly.  The  annual  school  appropriation  was  raised  to 
$35,000,  but  the  obligation  of  towns  to  supplement  state  school 
money  remained  at  one-third  the  town's  share  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  $25,000,  as  under  the  Barnard  act.  A  conflict  of  opinion 
in  the  General  Assembly  as  to  the  wisdom  of  increasing  the 
obligation  of  towns  delayed  enactment  of  a  revised  school  law 
until  1851,  and  the  conservative  party  was  triumphant.  The 
town  obligation  remained  unchanged. 

The  state,  in  1854,  added  $15,000  to  its  annual  appropriation; 
towns  were  required  to  supplement  the  state  school  money  by 
taxation  amounting  to  one-third  of  the  town's  share  in  $35,000. 
In  1869  the  town  obligation  was  raised  to  one-half,  and  in  1871 
and  afterward  town  taxation  for  school  support  must  equal 
state  school  money.  The  state  appropriation  was  made 
$70,000  in  1868,  $90,000  in  1869  and  $120,000  in  1884.  Dog 
license  fees  were  appropriated  to  school  support  in  1869,  and  in 
1888  poll  taxes  replaced  registry  taxes. 

ABOLITION  OF  TUITION. 

Scholars  in  the  early  free  public  schools  of  Providence  were 
assessed  for  fuel  and  required  to  furnish  ink.  In  1833  the  fuel 
assessment  was  abolished.  Newport  assessed  against  scholars 
a  small  tuition  charge,  but  provided  free  textbooks  and  sta- 
tionery. By  statute  in  1839  school  committees  were  empow- 
ered, "whenever  an  amount  of  money  sufficient  to  pay  for  fuel, 
rent  and  other  incidental  expenses  of  public  schools  shall  not  be 
provided  by  any  town  by  taxation  or  otherwise,"  "to  assess  a 
sum  sufficient  to  pay  such  expenses  upon  those  who  send 
scholars  to  the  schools,  in  such  manner  as  they  may  deem  just, 


148  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

exempting  from  assessment  such  as  they  consider  unable  or  too 
poor  to  pay."  This  act  supplemented  section  4  of  the  general 
school,  law  of  1839,  which  required  that  state  school  money  be 
"applied  to  pay  for  instruction,  and  not  for  room  rent,  fuel 
or  any  other  purpose  whatsoever."  It  enabled  town  school 
committees  to  use  the  state  school  money,  by  hiring  a  teacher 
even  when  the  town  failed  to  provide  a  schoolroom  and  addi- 
tional money  for  incidental  expenses  of  keeping  school.  The 
Barnard  school  act  continued  the  prevailing  system,  designated 
the  state  school  money  "teachers'  money,"  to  be  applied  ex- 
clusively to  the  payment  of  teachers'  wages,  and  permitted 
assessment  of  tuition,  which  it  limited  in  amount  to  one  dollar 
per  scholar  for  each  term  of  three  months.  In  1847  the  legal 
voters  of  any  district  in  which  public  schools  of  different  grades 
were  established,  were  empowered  to  fix  a  rate  of  tuition  for 
each  grade  of  schools,  not  exceeding  one  dollar  per  scholar  for 
the  lowest  grade  and  two  dollars  for  the  higher  grade,  for  any 
term  of  three  months,  provided  that  the  rate  of  tuition  be 
approved  by  the  school  committee. 

The  Evil  of  Rate  Bills. — Commissioner  Potter,  in  1850,  rec- 
ommended abolition  of  rate  bills.  "There  can  be  no  doubt," 
he  said,  "that  the  present  rate  bill  system  is  one  great  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  a  more  general  attendance.  In  several  of  the 
larger  towns  the  schools  are  now  made  entirely  free  by  town 
taxation,  but  in  many  of  the  towns  the  state  and  town  appro- 
priations are  insufficient  and  the  remainder  is  assessed  on 
scholars.  .  .  .  The  greatness  of  the  evil  is  apparent.  It 
is  for  the  wisdom  of  the  Legislature  to  devise  a  remedy." 
Other  Commissioners  pointed  out  the  evil  effects  on  school 
attendance  produced  by  charging  tuition.  The  exemption. of 
poor  children  was  not  an  adequate  remedy;  it  was  well  known 
that  many  parents  preferred  keeping  their  children  away  from 
school  to  confessing  poverty.  The  rate  bill  was  an  assessment 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION.  149 

payment  of  which  could  not  be  avoided  easily.  Payment 
might  be  demanded  in  advance;  the  rate  bill  could  be  collected 
in  the  same  manner  as  town  taxes,  by  levy  upon  the  property 
of  the  debtor,  or  by  arrest  of  his  body  and  imprisonment  for 
debt.  Hence,  possibly,  arose  a  reluctance  on  the  part  of  some 
who  could  pay,  to  incur  the  obligation.  It  was  almost 
ridiculous  to  expect  a  satisfactory  attendance  record  under  all 
the  circumstances. 

The  amounts  collected  by  rate  bills,  as  reported  to  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools,  were  $10,075  in  1851,  $10,210  in 
1852,  $6,516  in  1853,  $10,823  in  1854,  $11,721  in  1855,  $10,502 
in  1856,  $7,394  in  1857,  $5,251  in  1858,  $5,893  in  1859,  $6,831  in 
1860,  $5,320  in  1861,  $3,739  in  1862,  $4,551  in  1863,  $3,296  in 
1864,  $4,920  in  1865,  $9,655  in  1866,  $9,630  in  1867,  $8,945  in 
1868,  $2,452  in  1869.  In  1868  rate  bills,  after  the  current  year, 
were  abolished.  The  state,  at  the  same  time  that  it  abolished 
rate  bills,  increased  its  annual  appropriation  $20,000,  thus 
amply  providing  for  the  towns  which  still  depended  upon  this 
form  of  school  tax.  Three-quarters  of  the  towns  in  the  state 
used  rate  bills  in  1867  and  1868. 

TEXTBOOK  EXACTIONS— FREE  TEXTBOOKS. 

The  textbook  problem  was  threefold;  that  is,  it  involved 
three  problems:  First,  the  supplying  of  pupils  in  the  schools 
with  the  books  needed  for  study;  second,  uniformity  of  text- 
books in  the  different  schools  of  a  system ;  third,  some  reasonable 
restriction  upon  frequent  changes  of  books  or  editions.  The 
first  problem,  that  of  supply,  was  complicated  by  failure  to  solve 
the  second  and  third.  While  teachers  were  permitted  to  choose 
textbooks  and  editions  for  use  in  their  own  schoolrooms,  and 
while  school  officers  and  teachers  were  permitted  to  act  as 
agents  for  textbook  manufacturers — the  word  seems  apt  to 
characterize  a  certain  class  of  publisher — and  while  there  were 
no  restrictions  upon  frequent  changes,  parents  of  school 


150  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

children  were  burdened  not  only  with  the  primary  cost  of 
providing  books,  but  with  the  additional  and  vexatious  exac- 
tion of  buying  new  books  with  every  change  of  teachers,  new 
books  upon  removal  or  tiansfer  from  one  to  another  district 
in  the  same  town,  and  still  other  new  books  when  a  change 
was  ordered  by  school  officers. 

The  Textbook  Evil. — Reports  of  Providence  schoolmasters  in 
1820  disclosed  a  variation  in  textbooks,  in  spite  of  rules  and 
regulations  which  prescribed  certain  books.  In  1830  the  school 
committee  adopted  Oliver  Angell's  series  of  Union  books, 
which  were  published  at  a  low  price,  as  a  means  of  reducing  the 
burden.  The  general  school  acts  of  1828  and  1839  permitted 
school  committees  to  prescribe  the  books  used  in  town  schools, 
thus  limiting  the  assumed  prerogatives  of  teachers.  And  yet, 
Wilkins  Updike,  in  his  address  to  the  General  Assembly  in  1843, 
declared:  "The  books  for  our  schools  are  selected  by  authors, 
publishers,  or  itinerant  vendors,  and  all  that  parents  have  to  do 
about  the  matter  is  to  get  new  books  every  year  and  pay  the 
bills.  .  .  .  There  is  no  uniform  set  of  class  books,  not  only 
throughout  the  state,  but  even  in  the  same  district.  .  .  . 
One  man,  one  winter,  teaches  from  one  set  of  class  books,  and 
the  next  teacher  requires  an  altogether  different  set  of  books." 
Henry  Barnard  found  "want  of  suitable  provision  for  uniformity 
of  textbooks"  one  of  the  defects  of  the  school  laws,  and  his 
school  law  prescribed  as  one  of  the  duties  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  "to  recommend  the  best  textbooks,  and 
secure,  as  far  as  practicable,  a  uniformity  in  the  schools  of  at 
least  every  town,"  and  empowered  school  committees  "to 
prescribe  ...  a  general  system  of  rules  and  regulations 
for  .  .  .  studies,  books  .  .  .  and  methods  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  public  schools." 

Statutory  Regulation, — A  general  law  enacted  in  1870  forbade 
superintendents  of  schools,  members  of  school  committees  and 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION.  151 

other  persons  officially  connected  with  public  schools  to  receive 
any  private  fee,  gratuity,  donation  or  compensation,  in  any 
manner  whatsoever,  for  promoting  the  sale  or  exchange  of  any 
school  book,  map  or  chart  in  any  public  school,  and  other 
persons  to  offer  fees,  commission  or  compensation  to  public 
school  officers  for  promoting  such  sales  or  exchanges.  Changes 
in  textbooks  might  be  made  thereafter  only  by  two-thirds  vote 
of  the  school  committee*  after  notice  in  writing  had  been  given 
at  a  previous  meeting,  and  not  oftener  than  once  in  three  years 
without  the  consent  of  the  State  Board  of  Education.  This 
law  of  1870  is,  substantially,  law  at  the  present  time.  In  two 
decisions  under  the  law  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  has 
held  that  a  change  of  editions  may  not  be  a  change  of  textbooks, 
and  that  reconsideration  of  an  order  to  change  textbooks,  unless 
notice  of  the  motion  to  reconsider  suspends  the  original  change, 
is  an  attempted  second  change  and  violates  the  law.f 

The  law  of  1870  solved  two  textbook  problems.  The  main 
problem,  that  of  supplying  textbooks,  was  as  serious  in  its 
effect  upon  the  schools  as  upon  the  pocketbooks  of  parents. 
Presuming  that  textbooks  are  necessary,  the  beginning  of 
efficient  instruction  must  await  the  time  when  scholars  are 
amply  provided  with  these  important  accessories,  and  scholars 
tardily  provided  with  books,  or  without  books,  must  be  a  con- 
tinual handicap  to  reasonable  progress.  The  masters  of  Provi- 
dence schools  were  ordered,  in  1804,  to  "receive  no  scholars 
unless  they  are  severally  furnished  with  such  books  as  are 
studied  in  the  several  classes  to  which  such  scholar  belongs," 
but  the  same  order  provided  a  way  tor  supplying  books  for 
"scholars  whose  parents  or  guardians  may  not  be  able  to 
furnish  them  with  the  necessary  books."  In  1822  masters 
were  ordered  to  "attend  personally  on  parents  .  .  .  and 
others  having  charge  of  children  who  attend  their  respective 

*By  a  majority  vote  of  the  elected  members  in  Providence. 
fSchool  Law  of  Rhode  Island,  1914,  67. 


152  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

schools  and  inform  them  that  unless  they  are  furnished  with 
suitable  books,  or  make  it  appear  satisfactorily  that  they  are 
not  able  to  procure  these,  that  they  will  be  liable  to  be  dismissed 
from  school."  Newport  dealt  with  the  textbook  problem  by 
supplying  free  textbooks  and  charging  tuition  to  cover  the  cost. 
Neither  the  law  of  1828  nor  the  law  of  1839  empowered  school 
committees  to  supply  textbooks  or  make  other  provision  for 
scholars  not  provided  with  books. 

The  Problem  Recognized. — The  Barnard  school  act  required 
school  trustees  "  to  see  that  scholars  are  properly  supplied  with 
books,  and  in  case  they  are  not,  and  the  parents  and  guardians 
or  master  have  been  notified  thereof  by  the  teacher,  to  provide 
the  same  at  the  expense  of  the  district  and  add  the  price  thereof 
to  the  next  school  tax  or  rate  bill  of  said  parents."  The  act 
safeguarded  the  children  of  the  poor  through  its  provision  for 
exemption  from  tuition  charges  at  the  discretion  of  the  trustees, 
and  the  positive  rule  that  no  child  should  be  excluded  from 
school  for  inability  of  his  parents  or  guardians  to  pay  rate  bill 
or  other  tax.  Mr.  Barnard  explained  the  section  of  the  law 
thus:  "Nothing  short  of  the  power  with  which  the  trustees 
are  here  invested  will  do  away  with  the  complaints,  and  just 
complaints  of  teachers,  respecting  the  inadequate  supply  of 
suitable  books.  In  more  than  four-fifths  of  the  returns  which 
have  been  received  from  teachers  a  number  of  children  are 
mentioned  as  not  supplied  with  books.  It  would  be  better  in 
most  of  the  districts,  and  even  the  towns,  to  have  the  books  pur- 
chased by  or  under  the  direction  of  the  school  committee  or 
trustees,  and  furnished,  when  needed,  to  the  children,  and  the 
expense  put  upon  the  tax  or  rate  bill  of  the  parents." 

Commissioner  Potter  recognized  the  expense  of  providing 
textbooks  as  one  of  the  reasons  for  parents'  neglect  to  send 
children  to  school,  and  as  a  cause  for  poor  school  attendance. 
Commissioner  Allyn  advocated  the  supplying  of  textbooks  by 


SURVEY  AND   REORGANIZATION.  153 

school  committees,  or  the  purchase  by  school  officers  of  sufficient 
supplies  of  books  and  the  loaning  of  books  to  scholars  at  a 
small  rental — perhaps  free  textbooks.  He,  too,  considered  the 
expense  of  providing  textbooks  as  detrimental  to  school  attend- 
ance. 

Free  Textbooks. — The  abolition  of  rate  bills  in  1868  marked  a 
step  in  advance  toward  free  textbooks.  The  duty  of  school 
trustees  to  supply  books  for  scholars  not  otherwise  provided 
continued;  but  the  expense  thereafter  could  no  longer  be 
charged  to  parents.  In  1893  the  General  Assembly  enacted  a 
free  textbook  law,  requiring  the  school  committee  of  every  city 
and  town  to  "purchase  at  the  expense  of  such  city  or  town, 
textbooks  and  other  school  supplies  used  in  the  public  schools," 
and  to  loan  them  "to  the  pupils  of  said  public  schools  free  of 
charge,  subject  to  such  rules  and  regulations  as  to  care  and 
custody  as  the  school  committee  may  prescribe."  The  law 
was  construed  by  Commissioner  Ranger  in  1906  as  mandatory, 
obligating  school  committees  to  provide  free  textbooks  at  the 
expense  of  towns,  even  though  no  money  had  been  appropriated 
or  was  available  for  the  purpose.* 

The  three  textbook  problems  have  been  solved:  First,  that 
of  supply,  by  the  free  textbook  law;  second,  that  of  choice,  by 
the  power  given  exclusively  to  school  committees;  third,  that 
of  change,  by  the  law  restricting  changes  to  once  in  three  years. 
Since  1857  it  has  been  one  of  the  duties  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools  to  recommend  as  far  as  practicable  uniformity  of 
textbooks  in  all  the  towns  of  the  state. 

SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE. 

It  is  scarcely  merely  a  coincidence  that  Francis  Wayland  in 
1828,  the  representatives  of  the  Providence  Association  of 
Mechanics  and  Manufacturers  in  1839,  Wilkins  Updike  in  1843, 
and  Henry  Barnard  in  1844  found  the  deficiencies  of  the  public 

*School  Law  of  Rhode  Island,  1914,  67. 


154  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

schools  of  their  time  a  cause  sufficient  to  explain  a  considerable 
proportion  of  poor  attendance.  The  facts  that  so  many  children 
in  Providence  attended  private  schools,  and  that  public  school 
attendance  in  Providence  invariably  increased  after  reforms  or 
improvements  in  the  schools,  supported  the  position  of  Wayland 
and  the  Mechanics.  Updike  believed  that  such  improvements 
in  rural  schools  as  would  carry  them  to  the  standard  maintained 
in  Providence  in  1843,  would  attract  pupils  to  them  and  remedy 
evil  school  conditions  throughout  the  state.  Barnard's  rec- 
ommendations urged  improved  schools.  His  specific  remedies — 
(1)  a  regular  time  each  year  for  the  school  term,  (2)  a  regular 
time  for  admitting  pupils,  (3)  a  regular  time  for  beginning  school 
sessions,  (4)  forfeiture  of  school  privileges  for  poor  attendance, 
(5)  regular  attendance,  (6)  careful  records  of  attendance  and 
class  work,  (7)  weekly  and  monthly  reports  to  parents,  and  (8) 
specified  holidays  and  no  others — tended  to  cure  irregular 
attendance  and  to  improve  average  attendance  records,  rather 
than  school  enrollment.  None  of  the  reformers  mentioned 
urged  compulsory  attendance. 

To  provide  for  the  keeping  of  the  records  required  by  the 
Barnard  act,  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  ordered  in 
1846  to  furnish  a  suitable  register  for  each  district  school.  The 
total  enrollment  in  1845  was  20,096;  in  1850  it  was  24,743,  with 
average  attendance  only  13,282;  in  1855  total  enrollment  was 
26,883  and  average  attendance  18,998.  School  population  was 
estimated  in  1850  as  33,958,  and  in  1855  as  39,001.  The  slight 
gain  in  enrollment  fell  far  behind  the  increase  in  school  popula- 
tion; the  gain  in  average  attendance  was  more  comforting. 
Comparing  total  enrollment  in  1852  and  1857,  Commissioner 
Allyn  found  an  actual  decrease  of  three  per  cent.,  and  a  loss  in 
average  attendance  of  two  per  cent. 

The  Religious  Question.— Commissioner  Potter  urged  the 
abolition  of  rate  bills  as  one  solution  of  the  attendance  problem. 
Commissioner  Allyn  was  convinced  that  textbook  exactions 


SURVEY   AND    REORGANIZATION.  155 

were  a  vexatious  cause  for  poor  attendance.  Two  bills  dealing 
with  truancy  were  passed  by  the  Rhode  Island  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives in  1853,  but  failed  of  passage  in  the  Senate.  One 
empowered  towns  and  cities  to  provide  by  ordinance  for  the 
punishment  of  "truant  children  between  the  ages  of  5  and  15 
who  are  growing  up  in  ignorance,  are  without  regular  or  lawful 
occupation  and  are  habitual  truants  from  school,"  by  fine  or 
imprisonment  in  reformatory  institutions.  The  other  bill  con- 
ferred similar  powers  upon  the  city  of  Providence.  Commis- 
sioner Potter  expressed  his  satisfaction  at  the  defeat  of  both 
bills,  which  were  intended  to  deal  with  the  withdrawal  of 
Roman  Catholic  children  from  the  public  schools  of  Providence 
after  the  opening  of  parochial  schools  in  that  city.  In  May, 
1851,  the  school  committee  of  Providence  noted  "a  considerable 
diminution  of  the  numbers  attending  several  of  the  schools  has 
recently  taken  place  by  the  removal  of  children  of  Roman 
Catholic  parents,  schools  having  been  provided  for  them  under 
the  immediate  supervision  of  the  clergy  of  their  order  and  several 
of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy."  In  1855  "this  apparent  decrease  in 
the  number  of  children  attending  our  public  schools,  notwith- 
standing the  large  increase  in  population,"  was  accounted  for 
"by  the  fact  that  several  hundred  children  have  been  withdrawn 
to  attend  upon  the  Roman  Catholic  schools."  The  several 
hundred  were  over  600,  and  in  1865  the  number  had  increased 
to  1273. 

Commissioner  Potter's  objection  to  the  truancy  bills  was 
consistent  with  his  firm  opposition  to  any  action  savoring 
of  sectarianism  or  bigotry.  A  bitter  controversy  over  the 
parochial  school  question  was  then  raging  in  other  states. 
Commissioner  Potter  presented  voluminous  extracts  from  the 
arguments  of  both  parties,  as  supplements  to  his  regular  reports 
to  the  General  Assembly.  He  laid  down  the  rule  still  governing 
devotional  exercises  and  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  public 
schools:  "The  reading  of  the  Bible  or  conducting  other  deVo- 


156  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

tional  exercises  at  the  opening  or  closing  of  schools  is  neither 
forbidden  nor  commanded  by  law,  and  rests  with  the  teacher, 
who  should  respect  his  own  conscience  and  the  consciences  of 
his  pupils  and  their  parents."  It  is  equally  clear  from  Com- 
missioner Potter's  report  for  1853  that  he  was  opposed  to 
compulsory  attendance  as  an  invasion  of  the  rights  of  individual 
liberty  and  the  right  of  free  and  liberal  thought.  State  control 
of  education  and  compulsory  education  he  characterized  as 
first  steps  toward  despotism.  He  believed,  however,  that  no 
obstacle  should  be  permitted  to  stand  in  the  way  of  attendance 
at  public  schools;  hence  his  plea  for  abolition  of  rate  bills. 

Factory  Legislation. — The  General  Assembly  in  1853  limited 
the  hours  of  labor  of  children  employed  in  factories,  and  in  1854 
forbade  the  employment  of  minors  under  15  in  factories  for  more 
than  nine  months  in  a  year  and  unless  the  minor  had  attended 
school  three  months  in  the  preceding  year.  Commissioner  Allyn 
was  ordered  in  1855  to  ascertain  and  report  the  number  of  children 
in  the  state  between  the  ages  of  6  and  15  years  who  are  habitual 
truants  from  public  schools,  with  suggestions  and  recommenda- 
tions. A  law  permitting  towns  and  cities  to  "make  all  needful 
provision  and  arrangements  concerning  habitual  truants  and 
children  between  the  ages  of  6  and  16,  not  attending  school, 
without  any  regular  employment,  and  growing  up  in  ignorance, 
and  also,  such  ordinances  and  by-laws  respecting  such  children 
as  shall  be  deemed  most  conducive  to  their  welfare  and  the  good 
order  of  such  town,"  followed.  Such  children  might  be  com- 
mitted to  "  any  such  institution  of  instruction  or  suitable  situa- 
tion as  may  be  provided  for  that  purpose,"  but  not  "  to  any  place 
used  for  the  reception  of  criminals  or  to  any  reform  school." 
Ordinances  and  by-laws  must  be  approved  by  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools.  The  law  was  clearly  defective  and  scarcely 
likely  to  be  enforced,  for  two  reasons:  (1)  That  it  empowered 
but  did  not  require,  towns  and  cities  to  act,  and  (2)  that  there 
were  no  "  institutions  of  instruction  .  .  .  provided  for  that 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION.  157 

purpose,"  nor  was  it  probable  that  any  city  or  town  would 
establish  such  an  institution.  It  was  idle,  too,  to  attempt  to 
enforce  a  law  by  fining  a  minor,  when  there  was  no  alternative 
penalty  and  no  effective  way  of  enforcing  payment.  It  was 
also  impracticable  to  attempt  to  enforce  compulsory  attend- 
ance while  tuition  was  charged.  In  such  condition  the  law 
remained  until  the  early  70's.  The  abolition  of  rate  bills  paved 
the  way  for  a  more  practicable  way  of  dealing  with  attendance 
and  truancy  problems. 

The  Color  Question. —  While  school  authorities  were  still 
groping  in  the  attempt  to  find  a  remedy  for  poor  attendance, 
one  class  of  citizens  was  demanding  equal  school  privileges, 
As  early  as  1828  Providence  established  a  separate  school  for 
colored  children  in  the  old  Brick  schoolhouse  on  Meeting 
street.  In  1836  a  committee  that  investigated  decreased 
attendance  at  this  school  found  the  cause  to  be  "an  unhappy 
prejudice  of  the  coloied  people  against  him"  (the  schoolmaster), 
which,"  although  .  .  .  generally  unfounded  .  .  .  goes 
to  destroy  his  usefulness."  The  committee  recommended  dis- 
continuance of  the  school  and  the  establishment  of  two  schools, 
to  be  kept  by  women  teachers.  The  second  'school,  on  Pond 
street,  was  opened  in  1837,  discontinued  in  1839  and  reopened  in 
1842,  from  which  year  until  1865  the  city  maintained  two 
separate  schools  for  colored  children.  The  state  law  provided 
no  remedy  for  discrimination,  for  these  children  were  excluded 
from  the  public  schools  nearest  their  homes  by  force  of  a  "gen- 
eral regulation  applicable  to  all  persons  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances," and  their  appeal  must  rely  upon  sentiment  for 
support  while  schools  were  provided  for  them  of  a  grade  corre- 
sponding with  other  public  schools.  The  situation  changed, 
however,  when  colored  children  were  excluded  altogether  from 
the  high  school  in  Providence. 

Newport  and  Bristol  also  had  established  separate  schools  for 
colored  children.  A  number  of  petitions  praying  for  relief  from 


158  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

discrimination  and  for  equal  rights  were  presented  to  the 
General  Assembly  in  the  early  60's,  committees  were  appointed 
and  hearings  were  held.  There  was  opposition  to  interference 
with  the  school  systems  under  investigation,  but  in  1866  the 
result  almost  inevitable  in  a  northern  state  immediately  after  the 
Civil  War,  was  reached.  Thus  it  happened  that  discrimination 
because  of  color  was  forbidden  in  Rhode  Island  public  schools 
before  the  ratification  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  It  may  be  recalled  that 
the  free  school  act  of  1800  had  provided  for  the  "  instruction  of 
all  the  white  inhabitants"  between  the  ages  of  6  and  20  years. 
The  Newport  school  act  of  1825  authorized  the  seaport  town  to 
raise  a  tax  "for  educating  the  white  children  of  the  town." 
The  basis  of  apportioning  school  money  for  more  than  a  genera- 
tion after  1831  was  white  population  under  15,  colored  popu- 
lation under  10  and  five-fourteenths  of  colored  population 
between  the  ages  of  10  and  24  years;  but  this  provision,  much 
as  it  resembles  Section  2  of  Article  1  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  was  intended,  not  as  a  discrimination  against  the 
colored  population,  but  as  a  way  of  reducing  census  figures, 
not  so  elaborate  in  the  classification  of  negroes  as  of  white 
persons,  to  the  same  basis  for  all  classes  of  population.  The 
city  of  Providence,  notwithstanding  the  general  law,  even 
after  its  enactment,  maintained  practically  separate  schools 
for  colored  children,  by  withdrawal  of  white  children  from  two 
schools  in  precincts  where  the  colored  population  was  segre- 
gated. No  colored  child  could  be  compelled,  after  the  law  was 
passed,  to  attend  either  school,  and  in  course  of  time  the  dis- 
tinction disappeared  as  the  colored  population  scattered  into 
other  sections  of  the  city. 

Commissioner  BickneWs  Effort. — A  vigorous  renewal  of  effort 
to  improve  the  attendance  record  was  begun  by  Commissioner 
Bicknell,  soon  after  his  appointment  in  1869.  His  appeal  to 
the  people  of  the  state  was  based  upon  the  growth  of  illiteracy. 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION. 


159 


The  facts  upon  which  he  relied  are  presented  here  in  tabular 
form,  with  the  population  of  the  state  appended  for  readers  who 
wish  to  make  comparisons  : 


y 

Total. 

Native 

Foreign 

White. 

Black. 

Popu- 

» 

born. 

born. 

lation. 

1850. 

Illiterates  over  20  years  . 

3,607 

1,248 

2,359 

3,340 

267 

147,545 

1860. 

Illiterates  over  20  years. 

6,112 

1,202 

4,910 

5,582 

260 

174,620 

1865. 

Illiterates  over  20  years  . 

10,181 

1,552 

8,629 

184,965 

1870. 

Illiterates  over  21  years. 

16,786 

217,353 

1870. 

Illiterates  over  10  years. 

21,901 

4,444 

17,477 

21,011 

890 

217,353 

1870. 

Illiterates  10  to  21  years. 

5,115 

217,353 

When  the  figures  are  studied  carefully  and  analyzed,  they 
are  not  so  startling  as  first  appearances  make  them.  Rhode 
Island  was  in  no  way  to  blame  for  illiteracy  among  so  much  of 
the  foreign  born  population  as  came  to  the  state  after  school 
age:  nor  for  an  increase  in  illiteracy,  gross  01  in  proportion  to 
population,  due  to  a  large  immigration  of  foreigners;  nor 
probably  for  the  large  increase  in  illiteracy  among  the  colored 
population,  recruited  as  it  was  after  the  Civil  War  by  a  migra- 
tion of  freedmen  from  the  south.  Moreover,  the  gross  figures 
for  1870  are  for  population  over  10  years  of  age,  while  the 
statistics  for  earlier  years  start  with  21  years.  It  was  not 
comfortable,  of  course,  to  find  so  large  a  number  of  illiterate 
adults  in  a  small  democracy. 

The  fact  that  there  were  over  5,000  illiterates  between  the 
ages  of  10  and  21  years  indicated  a  field  for  improvement. 
"There  is  still  opportunity,  if  there  is  little  hope"  for  these, 
wrote  Commissioner  Bicknell.  "In  a  large  degree  they  either 
belong  to  our  truant  and  vagrant  population  .  .  .  or  to 
another  class,  which  by  the  cupidity  of  parents  or  employers  is 
obliged  to  pass  the  tender  and  formative  period  of  childhood 
and  youth  in  the  factory,  where  nimble  fingers  are  made  to 


160  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

enrich  the  capitalist  or  to  aid  in  the  support  of  the  family,  at 
the  expense  of  that  necessary  intelligence  which  fits  boys  and 
girls  for  the  ranks  of  society  and  citizenship.  Add  to  these  a 
class  of  children  whose  only  birthright  is  poverty,  neglect  and 
misfortune,  who  must  keep  the  wolf  and  the  sheriff  from  the 
door  by  early  toil,  trial  and  sorrow,  and  we  have  before  us  the 
unpromising  minor  illiterates  of  our  state." 

Commissioner  Bicknell  proposed  seven  remedies  :  (1)  Excel- 
lent common  schools,  (2)  intelligent  and  interested  public 
sentiment  strongly  positive  in  favor  of  universal  education, 
(3)  enforcement  of  a  law  forbidding  the  employment  of  children 
under  12  in  factories,  (4)  enforcement  of  a  law  compelling 
factory  children  to  attend  school  five  months  per  year,  (5)  a 
truant  and  vagrancy  law,  (6)  evening  schools  for  persons  over 
16  years  of  age,  (7)  a  literacy  test  as  a  qualification  for  suffrage 
rights. 

Legislative  Regulations. — The  General  Assembly  responded 
immediately  with  (1)  laws  (a)  forbidding  the  employment  of 
children  under  12  in  factories,  (b)  requiring  children  under  15 
employed  in  factories  to  attend  school  at  least  three  months 
each  year  and  limiting  the  period  of  legal  employment  to  nine 
months  per  year,  and  (c)  requiring  (instead  of  merely  author- 
izing) towns  to  adopt  truancy  ordinances,  and  (2)  with  an 
appropriation  for  evening  school  support,  to  be  apportioned 
by  the  State  Board  of  Education.  This  was  the  beginning  of 
state  support  of  evening  schools,  but  not  the  beginning  of 
evening  schools  in  Rhode  Island.  Public  evening  schools  had 
been  conducted  in  Providence  from  1850,  free  evening  schools 
under  philanthropic  auspices  as  early  as  1842,  and  private 
evening  schools  from  1800. 

Improved  Attendance  Laws. — Later  statutes  dealing  with  school 
attendance  and  truancy  have  produced  an  almost  perfect  law. 
Since  1878  an  annual  census  of  children  of  school  age  has  been 


SURVEY  AND   REORGANIZATION.  161 

required  by  statute.  Since  1887  the  appointment  of  truant 
officers  has  been  required  in  every  town  in  the  state.  In  1887 
the  penalty  for  failure  to  adopt  a  truancy  ordinance  was  made 
forfeiture  of  one-half  the  town's  share  of  state  school  money. 
In  1902  the  state  assumed  responsibility  for  enforcing  attend- 
ance laws  through  a  statute  providing  penalties  for  truancy 
and  neglect  to  send  children  to  school.  The  law  has  reached 
beyond  the  child  to  his  parent  or  guardian,  requiring  the  person 
in  custody  of  the  child  to  send  him  to  day  school  regularly. 
The  period  of  school  attendance  has  been  increased;  in  1887  it 
was  made  80  days;  in  1898  it  became  one  full  term,  or  half  the 
school  year,  in  Providence;  since  1902  it  has  been  the  full  school 
year  throughout  the  state.  A  beginning  was  made  in  1887  of 
requiring  children  aged  from  12  to  15  years,  at  work,  to  present 
certificates  of  school  attendance.  As  the  law  stands  now, 
children  (1)  between  the  ages  of  7  and  16  years,  and  children 
(2)  in  their  15th  and  16th  years,  who  are  not  regularly  employed, 
are  required  to  attend  day  school  regularly  until  they  have 
completed  the  studies  taught  in  the  first  eight  years  of  school 
attendance,  exclusive  of  kindergarten  instruction.  The  child 
and  his  parent  or  guardian  are  responsible  for  his  attendance. 
No  child  under  16  may  be  employed  in  a  factory  or  other 
business  establishment  without  a  certificate  that  the  child  is 
14  years  of  age,  able  to  read  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences 
in  the  English  language,  and  is  of  sound  health  and  physically 
fit  for  employment.  Children  under  14  who  have  completed 
the  elementary  school  grades  may  not  be  employed  in  factories, 
and  must  attend  school  if  sent  there  by  parent  or  guardian; 
but  the  obligation  of  the  parent  to  send  the  child  to  school  ends 
when  the  elementary  school  work  is  completed.  The  machinery 
of  enforcing  the  law  centres  in  the  school  committee,  which  (1) 
is  required  to  take  an  annual  census  of  children  of  school  age, 
which  (2)  has  access  to  records  of  attendance  and  enrollment 
kept  by  teachers,  which  (3)  is  required  to  appoint  truant  officers, 


162  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

and  which  (4)  issues  age  and  employment  certificates.  The 
difference  between  the  census  total  and  total  school  enrollment 
indicates  a  field  for  work  by  the  truant  officer,  while  his  duties 
include  also  attention  to  habitual  and  occasional  truants  among 
enrolled  pupils.  In  lieu  of  attendance  at  public  day  schools, 
children  may  attend  other  schools  or  receive  private  instruction 
approved  by  the  school  committee.  Truant  officers  and  state 
factory  inspectors  are  charged  with  enforcement  of  the  age  and 
employment  certificate  law.  Two  defects  in  the  law,  (1)  failure 
to  limit  the  issuing  of  age  and  employment  certificates  to  chil- 
dren who  have  actually  secured  employment,  and  exclusively  for 
the  particular  employment  secured;  and  (2)  failure  to  provide 
for  the  return  of  a  certificate  to  the  school  authorities  when  the 
child  is  no  longer  employed,  have  been  cured  by  legislation  en- 
acted in  1916.  An  advance  toward  more  perfect  detail  might  be 
made  through  an  extension  of  the  school  census  to  include 
children  beyond  school  age,  and  by  an  extension  of  the  age  and 
employment  certificate  law  to  include  children  up  to  18  years 
of  age.  The  information  that  would  be  gathered  were  the 
census  extended  might  indicate  the  value  of  a  law  requiring 
children  under  18,  not  regularly  employed,  to  attend  school. 

PROVISION  FOR  TRAINING  TEACHERS. 

The  incompetency  and  inefficiency  of  teachers  was  a  frequent 
cause  for  complaint  and  criticism  of  public  schools  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  utter  inadequacy  of  wages 
paid  was  a  sufficient  explanation  for  indifferent  quality  of  service 
rendered.  And  yet  there  were  teachers  in  those  old-time 
schools  who  overcame  difficulties  that  would  appall  a  modern 
teacher  and  who  left  memories  that  endeared  them  to  their 
pupils.  The  odious  comparison  of  the  efficiency  of  modern 
schools  with  an  alleged  perfection  in  the  little  red  district  school 
is  passing  only  with  the  death  of  the  few  lingering  survivors  of 
an  ancient  regime.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  practice 


SURVEY   AND   REOGANIZATION.  163 

of  teaching  has  not  improved  with  advancement  of  the  science 
of  education,  the  increasing  and  improving  facilities  for  training 
teachers,  and  the  wealth  of  accessories  designed  to  help  teacher 
and  pupil.  If  it  be  granted  that  certain  qualities  in  the  perfect 
teacher  seem  to  be  intuitive  and  to  develop  almost  instinctively, 
the  concession  amounts  only  to  recognition  of  the  fundamental 
principle  that  nothing  can  be  made  by  man  without  suitable 
material.  It  is  as  impossible  to  make  a  good  teacher  out  of  a 
young  man  or  a  young  woman  who  has  no  native  ability  and 
none  of  the  "natural  qualities"  of  a  teacher,  as  it  is  to  make 
good  butter  out  of  skimmed  milk.  Training  makes  the  teacher 
with  natural  talent  a  better  teacher.  When  for  reminiscences 
of  school  days,  written  years  after  leaving  school,  based  upon 
immature  and  untrained  observation  mellowed  by  the  lapse 
of  time,  are  substituted  the  opinions  of  mature  contemporaries, 
written  immediately  after  investigation,  the  picture  of  the 
perfection  of  the  early  teacher  loses  much  of  its  glampr. 

Henry  Barnard's  Effort. — The  necessity  for  training  teachers 
was  urged  by  Wilkins  Updike  in  his  memorable  address  in  1843. 
While  Henry  Barnard,  in  his  reports,  said 'little  of  inefficiency 
among  teachers,  he  so  persistently  advocated  measures  for  the 
improvement  of  teaching  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  his  opinion. 
He  did  say  that  if  teachers  were  properly  examined  "  the  public 
schools  will  cease  to  be  cities  of  refuge  for  those  who  can  find 
no  abiding  place  elsewhere,  or  who  assume  the  duties  because 
they  are  less  onerous  or  more  lucrative  than  any  other  employ- 
ment for  the  brief  period  of  three  or  four  months."  The  meas- 
ures that  he  proposed  for  improving  teaching  were,  principally, 
teachers'  institutes,  the  purchase  and  circulation  of  books 
dealing  with  the  science  of  teaching,  the  establishment  of  a 
model  school,  the  establishment  of  a  normal  school,  the  exami- 
nation and  certification  of  teachers,  the  circulation  of  educa- 
tional periodicals,  and  the  substitution,  in  primary  schools,  of 
women  for  men  teachers,  the  last  for  two  reasons,  based  upon 


164  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

efficiency  rather  than  competency,  first,  because  women  were 
better  fitted  for  the  work  of  teaching  small  children  and  would 
lend  refinement  to  the  lower  schools,  and,  secondly,  because 
their  wages  were  about  one-half  the  wages  that  must  be  paid 
to  men  teachers. 

Some  progress  toward  the  accomplishment  of  all  but  two  of 
the  improvements  suggested  by  Henry  Barnard  was  made  before 
his  resignation.  A  n  educational  library  of  at  least  30  volumes  was 
placed  in  every  town.  He  published  his  Journal  of  the  Rhode 
Island  Institute  of  Instruction  for  three  years,  and  circulated  it 
among  the  teachers  of  the  state;  it  was  followed  by  the  Educa- 
tional Magazine,  started  by  Commissioner  Potter,  and  in  1855 
by  the  Rhode  Island  Schoolmaster.  In  1874  the  Schoolmaster 
was  absorbed  by  the  New  England  Journal  of  Education.  The 
three  Rhode  Island  publications  were  assisted  by  state  appro- 
priations. Teachers'  institutes  were  conducted  by  Henry  Bar- 
nard and  experienced  teachers  under  his  direction.  The  state 
made  its  first  annual  appropriation  for  teachers'  institutes  in 
1849.  The  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruction,  organized 
at  Mr.  Barnard's  suggestion,  received  his  hearty  support  and 
encouragement,  and  has  had  a  continuous  history  since  1844. 
Women  teachers  gradually  replaced  men  teachers.  Mr.  Bar- 
nard in  one  year  helped  50  young  women  to  positions.  The 
provision  for  a  model  school  was  stricken  from  the  Barnard 
school  bill,  and  the  normal  school  which  the  law  of  1845  author- 
ized the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to  establish  was 
delayed. 

I  First  Normal  Schools. — Commissioner  Potter  was  a  persistent 
advocate  of  a  normal  school,  and  through  his  efforts  the  first 
normal  school  in  the  state  was  established  as  a  department  of 
Brown  University.  In  his  report  for  1850,  he  said:  "It  may 
be  well  to  consider  whether  some  arrangement  may  not  be  made 
by  which  the  advantages  now  enjoyed  by  a  few  only,  by  means 
of  the  college,  may  be  made  more  accessible  to  all,  and  may  in 


SURVEY   AND    REORGANIZATION.  165 

some  measure,  perhaps,  supply  the  want  of  a  normal  school. 
Brown  Univeisity  already  has  a  complete  organization.  .  .  . 
To  set  up  a  new  institution  for  education  of  teachers  would 
require  large  expenditure  of  money,  energy  and  time."  In 
August,  1850,  a  committee  of  the  General  Assembly  was  ap- 
pointed to  confer  with  a  committee  from  Brown  University  on 
the  establishment  of  a  professorship  of  didactics,  and  to  consider 
whether  or  not  it  is  practicable  for  the  state  and  the  university 
to  unite  the  office  of  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and  said 
professorship  in  the  same  person.  The  result  of  the  confer- 
ence does  not  appear  in  the  Schedules  by  committee  report, 
but  in  1850  the  university  established  a  normal  department, 
with  Samuel  S.  Greene,  then  also  Superintendent  of  Schools 
in  Providence,  as  professor  of  didactics.  The  arrangement  was 
short  lived;  it  was  imperfect  for  two  reasons  :  (1)  The  univer- 
sity did  not  receive  women  as  students,  and  (2)  no  provision 
was  made  for  state  free  scholarships  or  other  aid  for  students  or 
the  department. 

In  1852  a  private  normal  school  was  established  in  Provi- 
dence with  a  faculty  consisting  of  Professor  Greene  and  Messrs. 
Russell,  Colburn  and  Guyot,  respectively,  instructors  in  gram- 
mar, elocution,  mathematics  and  geography.  This  school  was 
a  failure  financially,  because  the  tuition  charges  necessary, 
without  public  assistance,  to  maintain  it  at  high  grade  were 
beyond  the  means  of  the  clientage  it  must  attract.  It  was 
abandoned  after  a  short  trial.  Dana  P.  Colburn  and  Arthur 
P.  Sumner,  on  May  29, 1854,  opened  a  state-aided  normal  school 
.  in  Providence,  for  which  the  General  Assembly  had  appropriated 
$3,000,  to  be  expended  by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 
In  1857  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  authorized  to 
locate  the  normal  school  in  Woonsocket  or  in  the  compact  part 
of  any  town  or  city  in  the  state,  where  it  shall  appear  to  him 
that  suitable  rooms  can  be  had  for  a  term  of  not  less  than  four 
years  without  expense  to  the  state.  The  norm  1  school  was 


166  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

lemoved  to  Bristol.  It  was  abandoned  in  1865.  The  General 
Assembly,  in  1866,  began  making  ennual  appropriations  to  aid 
the  training  of  teachers  at  academies  and  other  institutions  in 
various  parts  of  the  state.  The  present  Rhode  Island  Normal 
School  was  established  in  1871  in  Providence. 

TOWN  vs.  DISTRICT  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION. 

The  free  school  act  of  1800  ordered  the  division  of  towns  into 
school  districts;  the  ample  power  conferred  upon  school  districts 
to  raise  money  by  taxation  for  schoolhouse  building  and  school 
support  was  one  cause  for  dissatisfaction  with  the  act  which  led 
to  its  repeal.  The  law  of  1828  permitted  the  division  of  towns 
into  school  districts,  but  conferred  the  taxing  power  exclusively 
on  the  freemen  assembled  in  town  meeting,  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  schools,  including  the  location  of  schoolhouses  and  the 
hiring  of  teachers,  exclusively  on  the  town  school  committee. 
The  law  of  1839,  while  more  ample  in  detail,  changed  the  pro- 
vision for  school  support  and  school  administration  but  little. 
Under  it  the  school  district  became  a  body  corporate,  with 
power  to  hold  school  property,  but  lacking  the  power  to  levy 
a  tax  of  any  kind  without  a  special  act  of  the  General  Assembly. 
By  general  law  in  1844  school  districts  were  given  the  taxing 
power. 

The  Barnard  School  District  Fallacy. — While  Henry  Barnard 
characterized  school  administration  by  the  town  system,  that  is 
exclusively  by  a  town  school  committee,  as  the  "wisest  course," 
his  school  law  of  1845  raised  the  school  district  to  the  dignity  and- 
power  of  an  administrative  unit.  It  permitted  school  districts 
to  build  schoolhouses  and  assume  the  management  of  the  district 
schools  through  school  trustees.  It  permitted  the  school  trus- 
tees to  hire  teachers,  and  to  fix  the  time  for  keeping  school. 
The  powers  entrusted  to  school  trustees  rivalled  those  conferred 
upon  the  town  school  committee.  The  law  assured  to  each 


SURVEY  AND   REORGANIZATION.  167 

district  a  share  in  the  state  school  money,  which  must  be  appor- 
tioned to  districts,  one-half  equally  and  one-half  in  proportion 
to  average  daily  attendance.  It  imposed  no  irrecusable  obliga- 
tion upon  the  districts  to  support  schools  by  taxation,  for  it 
permitted  the  raising  of  school  money,  beyond  the  state  and 
town  provision,  by  rate  bill.  The  Barnard  theory  was  that 
the  districts  would  support  good  schools  if  given  a  reasonable 
measure  of  power  to  control  the  spending  of  money  raised  for 
.the  purpose.  His  law  restricted  the  creation  of  weak  districts 
and  the  division  of  populous  districts  in  which  graded  schools 
were  practicable.  The  theory  was  attractive  and  was  generally 
accepted  by  educators  at  the  period;  experience  proved  that  it 
was  fallacious.  To  be  sure,  most  wealthy  districts  maintained 
good  schools,  though  there  were  districts  in  which  wealth  was 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  close-fisted  obstructionists, 
or  wealthy  men  who  were  willing  to  spend  their  money  liberally 
to  educate  their  own  children  in  private  schools  and  who  cared 
nothing  for  the  local  district  school.  Populous  and  compact 
industrial  districts  failed  to  measure  up  to  Henry  Barnard's 
expectation  that  they  would  become  centres  for  excellent  graded 
schools.  The  populous  and  compact  districts  in  Rhode  Island 
were  mostly  factory  villages,  and  the  children  worked  instead 
of  going  to  school.  Small  and  weak  districts  were  a  constant 
care. 

The  immediate,  first  effects  of  the  Barnard  district  school 
organization  were  encouraging,  although  the  improvement  was 
in  spots  rather  than  universal.  The  best  school  districts  built 
new  schoolhouses  and  entered  heartily  upon  the  Barnard  pro- 
gramme for  improvement.  Their  example  and  the  zeal  of 
Henry  Barnard  stimulated  others,  but  the  laggards  remained, 
and  the  inequalities  usually  produced  by  a  district  system,  even 
in  the  confines  of  a  single  town,  became  apparent  quickly. 
Every  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  after  Henry  Barnard 
recommended  a  radical  modification  of  the  district  organization, 
or  its  abolition. 


168  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

His  Own  Recognition  of  the  Fallacy. — Henry  Barnard  rec- 
ognized the  advantages  of  town  school  organization.  His  act 
conferred  upon  towns  the  power  "to  establish  and  maintain 
without  forming  or  recognizing,  when  formed,  such  districts, 
a  sufficient  number  of  public  schools  of  different  grades,  at  con- 
venient locations,  under  the  entire  management  of  the  school 
committee."  "  The  option  given  to  the  towns  to  lay  off  their 
territory  into  primary  districts,  or  to  maintain  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  schools  of  different  grades  for  all  the  children  of  the  town, 
was  introduced,"  Henry  Barnard  remarked,  "to  meet  the 
present  practice  of  the  towns  of  Warren,  Bristol  and  Newport. 
It  would  be  better  for  the  cause  of  education  if  more  of  the 
towns  would  act  under  the  power  given  in  this  paragraph.  A 
classification  of  the  children,  not  according  to  their  location,  but 
according  to  age,  studies  and  proficiency,  is  the  great  object  to 
be  attained,  and  the  facility  for  doing  so,  when  enjoyed  as  now 
by  compact  villages,  ought  not  to  be  thrown  away."  With 
this  appreciation  of  the  advantages  of  the  town  system  already 
established  in  Rhode  Island  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  Henry 
Barnard's  measures  for  enlarging  the  powers  of  districts,  except 
on  the  ground  of  expediency — and  expediency  for  the  moment. 
The  state  problem  was  to  be  attacked  by  him  in  small  sections. 
State  responsibility  was  to  be  developed  through  local  respon- 
sibility. But,  strengthening  the  hands  of  the  districts  meant, 
ultimately,  a  harder  task  to  abolish  them  and  establish  a  town 
system.  And,  meanwhile,  the  continuation  of  the  district 
system  involved  the  continuation  of  inequalities  of  taxation  and 
inequalities  of  school  privileges;  the  continuance  of  a  division 
of  authority  in  school  administration;  the  continuance  of  decen- 
tralization and  aberration  from  standards,  when  the  crying 
need  of  the  time  was  centralization  and  the  attainment  of 
standards. 

Hampering  Legislation. — Legislation  after  1845  tended  to 
make  the  process  of  redeeming  the  state  from  the  district  system 


SURVEY   AND   REORGANIZATION.  169 

difficult.  The  act  of  1845  gave  towns  the  privilege  of  dis- 
regarding districts  in  reorganizing  school  systems  under  the  act; 
did  it  permit  abolition  of  districts  or  disregard  of  districts  once 
a  district  system  was  established  or  recognized  after  the  act  of 
1845?  It  permitted  school  committees  to  take  over  the  man- 
agement of  schools  in  districts  which  failed  to  organize  or  to 
keep  school;  it  permitted  districts  to  surrender  control  of  dis- 
trict schools  to  town  school  committees,  if  the  town  consented. 
It  made  no  clear  provision  for  town  rights  over  districts  com- 
plying with  the  law  and  not  willing  to  surrender  district  privi- 
leges. Revisions  of  the  school  law  repeated  the  language  used 
in  the  act  of  1845.  To  a  construction  of  the  Barnaid  law  as 
conferring  an  option,  which  expired  once  it  was  exercised,  a  law 
enacted  in  1846  gave  sanction.  This  law  was  passed  to  quiet 
claims  that  the  Barnard  act  abolished  all  districts  existing  prior 
to  1845  and  required  reorganization  of  every  town  system  under 
the  law  of  1845.  The  law  of  1846  confirmed  the  lines  of  existing 
districts  until  changed  by  the  school  committee. 

Revisions  of  the  law  proceeded  with  attention  to  language 
rather  than  to  meaning.  The  revision  of  1857,  for  example, 
(1)  gave  towns  power  to  establish  schools  without  forming  dis- 
tricts, and  (2)  declared  that  "all  existing  districts  shall  con- 
tinue until  legally  altered,"  and  (3)  gave  school  committees  the 
exclusive  power  to  alter  and  "discontinue  school  districts.* 
There  was  no  definite  provision  in  the  law  for  the  discontinuance 
of  all  districts.  Moreover,  the  act  of  1851  and  subsequent 
school  acts  gave  towns  the  power  to  build  schoolhouses  for 
districts,  but  forbade  the  assessment  of  taxes  for  this  purpose 
on  any  district  that  had  already  built  its  own  schoolhouse. 
Presuming  that  strong  districts  had  provided  schoolhouses,  a 
town  undertaking  to  help  its  weak  districts  was  limited  by  the 
tax  restriction.  The  restriction  aimed  at  justice  through  the 

*Bull  vs.  School  Committee,  11  R.  I.  244,  upheld  the  committee's  right  to  discontinue 
a  district,  by  dividing  it  and  joining  the  parts  to  other  districts. 


170  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

equalization  of  taxation,  and  at  encouraging  districts  to  build 
without  fear  of  "double"  taxation,  but  it  almost  inhibited 
exercise  by  the  town  of  the  very  power  which  the  law  conferred. 
Although  the  law  specified  and  distinguished  the  powers  of 
school  committees  and  trustees,  these  officers  were  not  in- 
frequently in  conflict,  while  the  intricacies  of  the  law  governing 
district  meetings  and  proceedings,  and  the  large  number  of 
separate  organizations  under  the  district  system  as  compared 
with  the  small  number  of  towns,  multiplied  the  possibility  of 
friction.  Abolition  of  districts  meant  (1)  a  reduction  in  the 
number  of  school  organizations  or  administrative  units,  (2) 
stronger  school  organizations  through  union,  (3)  a  concentra- 
tion of  power  and  responsibility  in  the  hands  of  school  com- 
mittees, (4)  freedom  for  the  towns  in  dealing  with  educational 
problems,  besides  (5)  all  the  possibilities  of  improvement 
through  consolidation  and  grading  of  schools.  The  law  of  1845 
permitted  the  union  of  primary  districts  to  conduct  a  union 
secondary  or  grammar  school,  and  the  union  of  contiguous  dis- 
tricts in  the  same  and  adjoining  towns  to  conduct  union  schools, 
without  the  loss  of  the  shares  of  the  original  districts  in  school 
appropriations.  But  the  law  left  the  town's  power  to  abolish 
districts  or  to  unite  all  districts,  by  vote  of  the  town,  doubtful. 
The  law  of  1872  omitted  the  clause  confirming  district  lines. 
In  1884  the  General  Assembly  removed  the  doubt  by  passing  a 
law  conferring  the  power  to  abolish  school  districts  upon  the 
town  meeting,  and  20  years  later,  abolished  all  districts  re- 
maining.* 

ORIENTATION  OF  THE  COMMISSIONER. 

The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  an  entirely  new 
officer  in  Rhode  Island;   he  must  find  his  place.     Of  this  officer 

.  *Comstock  vs.  School  Committee,  17  R.  I.  827,  denied  the  right  to  take  the  vote  to 
abolish  districts  in  district  meetings  ;  action  must  be  taken  in  town  meeting.  The  act 
abolishing  districts  was  held  to  be  constitutional.  In  re  School  Committee,  North  Smith- 
field,  26  R.  I.  165  ;  confirmed  34  R.  I.  526.  And  see  18  R,  I.  417. 


SURVEY   AND    REORGANIZATION.  171 

Henry  Barnard  said:  "The  officer  whose  appointment  is  pro- 
vided for  in  this  section  should  be  selected  with  special  reference 
to  his  knowledge  and  experience  in  all  matters  relating  to  schools, 
school  systems  and  education  generally,  and  should  have  no 
connection  with  political  parties  into  which  the  legislature  or 
the  community  may  be  divided  on  local  or  national  questions. 
Experience  in  other  states  has  shown  that  the  selection  of  the 
proper  person  had  better  be  left  to  the  governor  or  a  small  body, 
while  the  legislature  exercises  an  effectual  check  on  the  employ- 
ment of  an  incompetent  person  in  their  control  of  his  compen- 
sation. .  .  .  The  report  of  the  Agent  of  Public  Schools  for 
the  year  will  show  some  of  the  ways  in  which  an  officer  charged 
with  the  broad  and  general  duties  contemplated  .  .  .  can 
advance  the  interests  of  public  schools  and  of  popular  education 
generally.  Great  as  are  the  benefits  which  should  result  from 
the  faithful  discharge  of  his  public  duties,  such  as  the  visitation 
and  examination  of  schools,  and  addresses  in  schools  and  public 
meetings,  they  are  few  and  small  compared  with  the  benefits 
which  the  Commissioner  might  and  ought  to  render  by  his 
personal  communication  with  school  officers  and  parents." 

Functions  of  the  Commissioner.  —  The  law  made  the  Commis- 
sioner more  than  a  genial  conversationalist  or  correspondent. 
Besides  being  (1)  an  educational  expert  competent  to  advise 
the  General  Assembly  in  its  capacity  as  a  state  school  com- 
mittee, (2)  a  publicity  agent  for  projects  for  school  improvement, 
(3)  an  efficiency  agent  for  awakening  and  maintaining  public 
interest  in  schools,  and  (4)  the  amiable  counsellor  of  school 
officers,  teachers  and  parents,  the  specific  duties  prescribed  for 
the  Commissioner  made  him  (5)  dispenser  of  the  state  school 
money,  (6)  a  state  superintendent  of  schools  with  visitorial  and 
inquisitorial  powers,  (7)  an  agent  charged  with  the  improvement 
of  teachers  and  teaching,  (8)  a  school  statistician,  and  (9)  a 
judicial  officer  whose  function  it  was  to  reduce  the  friction  of 
parts  and  attend  to  the  mechanics  of  a  small  system  of  laws 


172  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

involving,  however,  a  multiplicity  of  public  interest.  He  must 
be  an  expert  educator,  a  sound  counsellor,  an  able  adminis- 
trator, a  firm  executive,  an  efficient  diplomat,  and  a  just  man— 
the  last  to  protect  himself  from  the  entanglements  with  which 
his  intimate  and  intricate  relations  with  so  many  officers  and 
people  threatened  him.  His  judicial  power  was  of  the  utmost 
importance,  because  it  strengthened  his  position  in  most  other 
relations.  It  gave  his  advice  a  weight  that  it  could  not  have 
had  otherwise,  for  a  school  officer  or  school  committee  which 
neglected  the  advice  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  ran 
the  risk  of  having  his  or  their  action  reviewed  by  the  Commis- 
sioner on  appeal. 

Efficiency  of  Commissioner  Potter. — Henry  Barnard's  per- 
sonality and  prestige  and  the  assured  support  of  many  of  the 
most  influential  men  in  the  state  gave  him  an  authority  bound 
to  be  respected.  His  successors  must  meet  the  real  test.  For- 
tunately his  immediate  successor,  Elisha  R.  Potter,  afterward 
an  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rhode  Island,  was 
an  able  exponent  of  the  judicial  authority.  The  General 
Assembly  established  important  precedents  during  the  Barnard 
administration  by  referring  petitions  for  the  adjustment  of 
school  disputes  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  for 
settlement,  in  sharp  contrast  to  its  procedure  before  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution  in  hearing  appeals  from  and  setting 
aside  judgments  of  its  established  courts.*  Thus  the  appellate 
jurisdiction  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  con- 
firmed at  the  outset  by  the  power  which  created  it.  But  the 
General  Assembly  took  a  backward  step  by  paying  Commis- 
sioner Potter  a  smaller  salary  than  it  had  provided  for  Com- 
missioner Barnard.  Commissioner  Potter's  salary  should  have 
been  the  same  as  Commissioner  Barnard's  if  his  services  were 
worth  as  much  to  the  state;  if  they  were  not  worth  the  estab- 

*Held  unconstitutional.     In  re  Dorr,  3  R.  I.  299  ;   Taylor  vs.  Place,  4  R.  I.  324.     Before 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  the  General  Assembly  exercised  supreme  judicial  authority. 


SURVEY  AND  REORGANIZATION.  173 

lished  salary,  the  state  should  have  sought  a  man  for  the  office 
who  was  worth  the  compensation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Com- 
missioner Potter  proved  to  be  an  excellent  official.  He  grasped 
the  opportunity  to  save  the  office  and  to  save  the  state  from 
leaction  and  retrogression.  He  was  well  prepared  to  do  this  by 
training  and  by  actual  experience  as  an  associate  and  assistant 
of  Henry  Barnard.  While  the  latter  was  ill  and  absent  from  the 
state  in  1846,  Mr.  Potter  prepared  for  publication  a  codification 
of  the  school  law,  with  explanatory  remarks  and  commentaries, 
and  a  set  of  39  forms  for  use  by  school  officers  in  transacting 
school  business  under  the  statutes.  A  second  edition,  including 
amendments  to  the  law,  was  printed  in  1847.  In  1851  Com- 
missioner Potter  published  the  text  of  the  revised  school  law, 
written  in  part  by  him,  with  remarks  and  commentaries  and  a 
set  of  revised  forms.  His  series  of  thirteen  decisions,  most  of 
them  approved  by  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  established 
the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
by  exercise  and  precedent.  Finally,  as  Associate  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  in  1873,  he  wrote  the  opinion  of  the  court  in  the 
Appeal  of  Cottrell,  10  R.  I.  615.  This  decision  held  that  the 
appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
is  not  limited  to  complaints  arising  from  infraction  of  law,  but 
extends  to  reviewing  acts  within  the  discretion  of  school  officers. 
The  decision  overruled  a  contrary  ruling  in  Gardner's  Appeal, 
4  R.  I.  602.  Commissioner  Allyn  likewise  upheld  the  judicial 
authority  of  his  office;  Chief  Justice  Ames  confirmed  his  ruling 
that  the  decision  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  after 
approval  by  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  is  final,  and.  may 
not  be  set  aside  for  rehearing.  The  position  of  the  Commis- 
sioner was  further  strengthened  by  the  decision  in  Smith's 
Appeal,  4  R.  I.  590,  holding  that  the  Commissioner's  finding  of 
facts  is  conclusive;  and  that  a  justice  considering  the  Commis- 
sioner's decision  for  approval  may  review  only  findings  of  law. 
These  decisions  define  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Com- 


174  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

missioner  of  Public  Schools  thus:  1.  An  appeal  need  not  rest 
upon  a  violation  of  law.  2.  The  Commissioner's  finding  of 
facts  is  final.  3.  The  Commissioner's  interpretation  of  the  law 
is  final  when  confirmed  by  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
4.  His  tribunal  is  a  court  of  policy  as  well  as  of  law. 

Henry  Barnard  had  been  the  confidential  adviser  of  the 
General  Assembly,  which  invited  him  to  deliver  his  reports 
personally  and  orally.  Not  all  of  his  suggestions  were  adopted. 
The  act  of  1845  differed  materially  from  the  bill  drawn  and 
advocated  by  Henry  Barnard,  although  the  latter,  in  most 
respects,  was  rather  a  codification  of  than  a  radical  departure 
from  existing  school  law,  custom  and  practice.  Commissioner 
Potter's  influence  with  the  General  Assembly  was  almost  as 
great  as  Henry  Barnard's.  Born  in  the  same  year  as  Henry 
Barnard,  1811,  Elisha  R.  Potter  was  son  of  Elisha  R.  Potter, 
lawyer,  state  legislator  and  congressman,  who  served  the  state 
in  the  General  Assembly  from  1796  to  his  death  in  1835  almost 
continuously,  save  for  four  terms  in  Congress.  The  younger 
Potter  was  Adjutant  General  of  Rhode  Island  in  1835  and 
1836,  Representative  in  Congress,  1843  to  1845,  assistant  to 
Henry,  Barnard  in  1846,  and  member  of  the  General  Assembly 
many  terms.  Thus  he  was  a  trained  public  officer,  besides 
being  by  profession  a  lawyer.* 

Under  Commissioners  Barnard  and  Potter  the  state  depart- 
ment of  public  schools  was  for  10  years  in  close  touch  with  the 
General  Assembly.  But  after  that  the  Commissioner's  in- 
fluence diminished;  he  became  less  an  adviser  than  an  officer 
whose  relation  to  the  General  Assembly  was  confined  to  pre- 
sentation of  an  annual  report.  Commissioner  Potter  probably 
foresaw  this  condition;  he  realized  the  limitations  of  an  office 
clothed  principally  with  advisory  powers.  In  1855  he  recom- 
mended the  creation  of  a  state  board  of  education  as  an 


*Henry  Barnard  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Connecticut  in  1835.     Horace  Mann  was  a 
lawyer.     Commissioner  Draper  of  New  York  was  a  lawyer. 


SURVEY  AND   REORGANIZATION.  175 

agency  for  strengthening  his  department.  This  reform  was 
adopted  in  1870  on  the  recommendation  of  Commissioner 
Bicknell.  Although  the  State  Board  has  become  the  repository 
of  many  powers  which  might  naturally  fall  to  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  his  position  as  Secretary  of  the  Board,  as  its 
expert  adviser  and  as  its  agent  with  almost  plenary  powers,  is 
even  more  influential  than  when  he  was  the  solitary  state  school 
officer.  Still  he  was,  until  in  1896  the  city  of  Providence  was 
brought  under  the  general  state  school  law,  an  officer  deprived 
of  jurisdiction  in  the  largest  and  most  prosperous  city  in  the 
state,  maintaining  the  most  elaborate  school  system.  Only 
one  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  has  ever  made  a  direct 
appeal  to  the  people  or  has  sought  through  extensive  use  of  the 
the  press  to  create  and  stimulate  popular  agitation.  That  his 
course  was  necessary  it  is  difficult  to  believe;  it  was  character- 
istic of  a  man  whose  penchant  for  the  spectacular  led  him  to 
seek  such  an  outlet  for  his  exuberant  energy.  Like  his  prede- 
cessors and  successors,  he  was  an  able  school  officer,  and  he 
accomplished  important  progress  in  his  few  years  of  service. 
The  time  was  ripe  for  the  progress,  however.  The  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Schools  has  been,  as  a  rule,  a  man  who  has 
worked  quietly  and  unostentatiously,  persistently  and  con- 
scientiously, for  school  improvement. 

SUMMARY. 

By  direction  of  the  General  Assembly,  Henry  Barnard  made 
a  survey  of  Rhode  Island  public  schools  in  1843-44. 

The  General  Assembly,  in  1845,  enacted  a  school  law  drafted 
by  Henry  Barnard,  which  reorganized  the  public  school  system 
and  established  the  foundation  for  the  present  public  school 
system. 

The  most  important  immediate  effects  of  the  work  of  Henry 
Barnard  were  a  splendid  improvement  in  the  physical  condition 


176  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

of  schools,  a  marked  advance  in  the  qualifications  of  teachers, 
and  an  awakening  amongst  the  people  of  the  state  of  a  genuine 
interest  in  education. 

Much  as  Henry  Barnard  accomplished  in  his  five  years  of 
service,  more  remained  to  be  done,  to  carry  into  complete  effect 
the  projects  which  he  had  undertaken,  to  solve  the  problems 
which  he  had  not  solved,  and  to  organize  the  system  of  schools 
to  meet  the  conditions  which,  though  not  clearly  foreseen,  were 
the  natural  consequences  of  the  changes  wrought  under  Henry 
Barnard's  leadership. 

This  chapter  has  selected  six  major  problems,  for  analysis 
and  for  study  of  their  solution  in  experience.  While  this  treat- 
ment is  advantageous  for  critical  study,  it  involves  a  serious 
danger  that  the  essential  unity  of  school  administration  may 
be  lost  sight  of.  It  has  seemed  desirable,  therefore,  to  present 
in  the  following  chapter  a  chronological  record. 


CHAPTER  V. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS. 


Six  major  problems  awaited  solution  in  1845  to  perfect  the 
system  of  public  schools  little  more  than  outlined  by  the  Bar- 
nard school  act.  Combined  with  minor  problems,  some  original 
and  many  arising  after  1845,  altogether  they  made  up  a  general 
problem  for  school  improvement  confronting  the  General  Assem- 
bly, the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and  other  school 
officers.  Solution  of  the  major  problems  was  not  undertaken 
seriatim;  the  general  problem  was  unitary.  The  following 
series  of  dates  records  chronologically  important  events  marking 
progress  toward  the  perfection  of  the  system  of  elementary 
schools  in  Rhode  Island  : 

1868.     Abolition  of  rate  bills. 

1870.  State  Board  of  Education  established.- 

1871.  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  established. 

1873.  Appellate  jurisdiction  of  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  defined  by  the  Supreme  Court. 

1882.     Town  maintenance  of  public  schools  made  mandatory. 

1884.     Maximum  state  general  school  appropriation  attained. 

1884.     Abolition  of  school  districts  permitted. 

1893.     Free  textbooks  ordered. 

1898.     State  certification  for  all  public  school  teachers. 

1902.  Full  term  school  attendance  made  compulsory.  The 
state  assumed  responsibility  for  enforcing  attendance. 

1904.  All  remaining  school  districts  abolished,  and  the  town 
system  established  throughout  the  state. 


178  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Abolition  of  tuition  and  free  textbooks  were  necessary  to 
make  the  public  schools  absolutely  and  completely  free  for  alL 
Free  schools  must  precede  effective  compulsory  attendance 
laws,  and  compulsory  attendance  is  necessary  to  insure  universal 
education.  Unless  the  state  assumes  the  entire  burden  of  school 
support,  maintenance  by  sub-divisions  of  the  state  must  be 
mandatory  to  insure  schools  in  every  section.  The  abolition 
of  districts  was  an  administrative  reform,  supplementing  the 
mandatory  town  school  support  law.  No  satisfactory  school 
system  can  be  maintained  without  trained  teachers;  hence  the 
necessity  for  a  normal  school,  and  state  certification.  A  reason- 
able uniformity  of  conditions  and  progressive  improvement 
require  a  strong  central  supervisory  authority;  hence  the  im- 
portance of  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  the  definition 
of  the  powers  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.  Thus 
each  reform  played  its  part  in  solution  of  the  general  problem. 

A  DECADE  OF  PROGRESS. 

Henry  Barnard's  work  as  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was 
interrupted  by.  serious  illness,  which  ultimately  forced  him  to 
resign  with  the  tremendous  task  of  physical  rehabilitation  of  the 
public  schools  of  the  state  still  uncompleted.  Of  the  progress 
made  in  six  years,  Commissioner  Potter  reported  in  1850  that 
of  322  school  districts  231  owned  schoolhouses.  In  six  years 
from  1844  more  than  $150,000  had  been  expended  outside  of 
Providence,  which,  with  $210,000  devoted-  to  rebuilding  and 
new  construction  in  the  city,  brought  the  total  expenditure  for 
buildings  and  equipment  in  Rhode  Island  to  $360,000.*  In 
1850  the  state  assessed  its  first  general  tax  for  school  support, 
and  increased  its  annual  appropriation  to  $35,000  in  1850,  and 
to  $50,000  in  1854.  The  normal  department  in  Brown  Uni- 
versity, the  private  normal  school  of  1852  and  the  state-aided 

*Expenditures  for  buildings,  sites,  and  equipment  in  each  of   two  recent  years   have 
exceeded  twice  the  amount  spent  in  the  six  years  from  1844  to  1850. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS.  179 

normal  school  of  1854  were  projects  promoted  by  Commissioner 
Potter. 

Commissioner  Potter's  services  in  interpreting  the  Barnard 
act  were  invaluable.  Details  of  the  law  were  perfected,  the  law 
was  revised  in  1851,  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Schools  was  established  through  exercise  and  in 
practice,  and  uniformity  was  given  to  school  administration  and 
school  reports  through  the  preparation  of  accurate  forms.  Com- 
missioner Potter  was  influential  in  repressing  the  religious  con- 
troversy threatened  by  the  opening  of  Roman  Catholic  parochial 
schools  in  a  period  wh«n  Know  Nothingism  was  rising  and  lines 
were  being  drawn  sharply  elsewhere.  He  opposed  legislation 
that  would  have  brought  State  and  Church  into  open  conflict. 
Though  measures  were  proposed  which  would  have  restricted  the 
parochial  schools,  and  tax  exemption  was  limited  for  a  brief  period 
in  1855,  the  only  measure  of  the  period  dealing  with  other  than 
public  schools  proved  ultimately  beneficial  to  both  public 
and  private  schools.  This  act  conferred  upon  school  committees 
the  right  to  visit  and  inspect  tax  exempt  institutions  of  learning 
and  asylums.  It  was  the  beginning  of  legislation  which  bought 
parochial  and  other  private  schools  under  public  supervision, 
sufficiently  to  insure  universal  education  without  prohibiting 
attendance  at  other  than  public  schools. 

Together  the  Barnard  and  Potter  administrations  com- 
prised ten  years  of  earnest  support  of  practically  a  consistent, 
unchanged  policy.  While  Commissioner  Potter  had  been 
Commissioner  Barnard's  associate  and  assistant,  he  was  more 
than  merely  a  disciple  of  Henry  Barnard.  He  was  the  practical 
man  of  affairs  needed  to  carry  into  effect  the  work  planned  by 
Henry  Barnard.  He  grew  with  years  of  ripening  experience  and 
devotion  to  public  education.  He  had  a  vision  of  a  higher  edu- 
cation supported  by  the  state,  discussing  in  one  report  the  place 
of  a  college  in  a  state  educational  system.  He  believed  that 
Rhode  Island  was  backward  in  educational  progress,  and, 


180  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

though  he  was  consistent  and  persistent  in  advocating  certain 
reforms,  he  was  conservative  rather  than  radical.  He  never, 
as  Commissioner,  passed  beyond  the  notion  of  opportunity  for 
public  education  into  the  modern  conception  of  universal 
compulsory  education. 

YEARS  OF  QUIET  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  third  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  a  clergyman, 
Rev.  Robert  Allyn  of  East  Greenwich.  His  most  important 
contributions  to  school  history  were  a  thorough  investigation  of 
truancy  and  absenteeism,  undertaken  at  the  request  of  the 
General  Assembly  in  1856,  and  the  beginning  of  more  complete 
statistical  school  reports  than  had  been  presented  by  his  pre- 
decessors. The  more  important  facts  disclosed  by  his  truancy 
and  absence  report  were  these:  Children  of  school  age,  30,749; 
children  under  six  years  in  school,  2810;  children  over  15  years 
in  school,  2343;  due  at  school,  35,902.  Children  registered  or 
enrolled  in  public  schools,  27,130;  in  private  schools,  2690; 
total  enrollment,  29,820;  not  enrolled,  6082.  Average  attend- 
ance, 19,330;  habitually  absent,  6865;  unable  to  attend,  532. 
This  report,  while  lamenting  poor  enrollment  and  low  average 
attendance,  did  not  deal  adequately  with  causes,  and  suggested 
no  practical  remedies.  In  his  first  report  Commissioner  Allyn 
recommended  restriction  of  textbook  abuses,  abolition  of  dis- 
tricts, a  state  certificate  law  for  teachers,  and  the  provision  of 
dictionaries  and  reference  books  at  state  expense,  the  last  a 
measure  adopted  years  after  Commissioner  Allyn's  retirement. 
His  decisions  exceeded  those  of  Commissioner  Potter  in  number,* 
and  were  important  in  substance,  but  his  later  reports  to  the 
General  Assembly  did  not  maintain  the  vigorous  tone  of  his 
first  report.  They  became  pedagogical  and  better  suited  for 
addresses  to  meetings  of  teachers  than  to  the  General  Assembly. 
Commissioner  Allyn  ranked  neither  with  Henry  Barnard  as  a 
schoolman,  nor  with  Commissioner  Potter  as  an  administrator. 


PUBLIC   SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS  181 

He  lacked  the  clear  understanding  of  school  problems  possessed 
by  the  former,  and  the  legal  and  practical  knowledge,  and  force 
of  the  latter.  His  administration  marked  the  beginning  of  a 
period  in  which  the  department  of  education  and  the  General 
Assembly  tended  to  drift  apart.  Commissioner  Allyn  resigned 
his  office  to  accept  the  chair  of  languages  at  Athens  University, 
Ohio.  He  was  subsequently  President  of  Cincinnati  Wesleyan 
Female  College,  President  of  McKendree  College,  and  President 
of  Southern  Illinois  Normal  University. 

John  Kingsbury,  Commissioner. — John  Kingsbury  was  ap- 
pointed Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  in  1858,  following  his 
retirement  in  the  same  year  after  30  years  as  principal  of  Dr. 
Stockbridge's  High  School  for  Young  Ladies.  Although  58 
years  of  age,  he  entered  upon  his  duties  as  Commissioner  with 
commendable  vigor,  visiting  almost  every  school  district  in  the 
state  in  the  year  of  his  incumbency.  In  this  survey  of  the 
schools  undertaken  15  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  Barnard 
movement,  he  found  many  towns  still  far  behind  the  general 
average  standard  for  the  state,  although  he  was  optimistic. 
His  report  uncovered  the  inequalities  of  school  conditions 
produced  by  the  district  system.  He  said:  "The  most  re- 
markable circumstance  to  be  noticed  ...  is  the  great 
contrast,  not  so  much  between  the  structure  and  condition  of 
the  schoolhouses  of  the  various  towns — though  there  is  here 
enough  to  challenge  attention — as  between  the  structure  and 
condition  of  the  schoolhouses  of  the  same  town,  and  sometimes 
between  those  of  adjacent  districts.  Why  is  this  so  ?  Here 
is  the  same  school  law  operating  equally  for  the  good  of  both, 
the  same  school  committee  to  whom  supervision  of  each  is 
committed.  In  the  one  district  you  will  find  the  schoolhouse 
beautiful,  commodious,  everything  without  and  within  being 
so  arranged  as  to  attract  and  win  the  hearts  of  the  young.  In 
the  very  next  district  everything  is  reversed.  Instead  of 
attraction,  the  prevailing  principle  as  seen  in  the  schoolhouse 


182  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

and  its  surroundings  is  repulsion.  Again  it  may  be  asked,  why 
is  it  so  ?  It  is  found  on  inquiry  that  there  is  an  equal  amount 
of  wealth  in  both  districts,  an  equal  number  of  children  to  be 
educated,  and  that  these  children  are  equally  dependent  upon 
their  education  for  the  stations  in  life  which  they  are  to  occupy. 
It  may  be  found  that  all  this  difference  may  be  traced  to  the 
activity,  energy  and  liberality  of  a  single  individual.  May  such 
individuals  be  multiplied  till  not  a  discreditable  schoolhouse  can 
be  found  in  Rhode  Island." 

It  is  clear  from  the  quotation,  as  from  Mr.  Kingsbury's 
career,  that  he  was  not  a  public  schoolman,  and  that  he  had  not 
grasped  the  fundamental  errors  of  the  district  system,  though 
he  recognized  their  effects.  Indeed,  he  started  on  his  work  with 
the  assumption  that  the  school  laws  of  the  state  were  as  nearly 
perfect  as  they  could  be  made,  and  that  his  duty  lay  in  sug- 
gesting improvements  in  the  schools  themselves  rather  than  in 
the  system.  He  found  "great  contrast  ...  as  between 
the  structure  and  condition  of  the  schoolhouses  of  the  same 
town,"  and  wondered  why  it  was  so,  with  "the  same  school  law 
operating  equally  for  the  good  of  both."  He  did  not  realize  that 
without  a  central  authority,  with  power  to  enforce  it,  no  general 

A 

law  operates  equally.  The  supervisory  powers  granted  to 
school  committees,  under  the  district  system,  were  ineffective, 
and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  unable  to  do  more 
than  suggest  improvement  while  school  support  was  not  man- 
datory. Contrasts  within  the  same  town  must  be  expected 
while  districts  were  administrative  units,  with  powers  which 
might  be  exercised  to  produce  great  good,  or  neglected  with 
consequent  evil.  Finally,  his  prayer  for  the  multiplication  of 
individuals  whose  "activity,  energy  and  liberality"  produced 
the  difference  between  "attraction"  and  "repulsion"  in  school- 
house  conditions,  was  unworthy  the  head  of  the  department  of 
education  in  a  democratic  state.  Mr.  Kingsbury  was  a  kindly, 
genial  old  gentleman,  conscientious  and  painstaking,  but  he 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS.  183 

lacked  the  public  view  of  education.     He  retired  from  office  at 
.his  own  request  that  he  be  relieved. 

JJenry  Rousmaniere,  Commissioner. — Joshua  B.  Chapin  suc- 
ceeded John  Kingsbury  as  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  in 
1859.  Governor  Sprague  appointed  Henry  Rousmaniere  Com- 
missioner in  1861  and  1862.  Dr.  Chapin  returned  to  office  in 
1863,  remaining  until  1869.  The  Civil  War  overshadowed 
school  and  all  other  interests  during  Mr.  Rousmaniere's  ad- 
ministration. He  introduced  a  new  feature  in  the  School 
Reports.  Earlier  Commissioners  had  reprinted  such  town 
reports  as  reached  the  state  office  as  appendices  to  their  own 
reports  to  the  General  Assembly.  Mr.  Rousmaniere  made  selec- 
tions from  the  town  reports  and  printed  them  topically,  in 
such  manner  that  it  was  possible  by  reference  to  any  phase  of 
school  activity  to  find  out  exactly  what  every  town  reporting 
was  doing  in  that  line. 

Joshua  Chapin's  Recommendations. — Dr.  Chapin  advocated 
various  reforms,  among  them  a  longer  school  year,  the  employ- 
ment of  town  school  superintendents  by  all  towns,  increased 
state  appropriations  for  school  support,  restriction  upon  the 
creation  of  new  school  districts,  modification  of  the  district 
system,  employment  of  women  teachers  to  replace  men  teachers 
in  the  lower  elementary  schools,  and  better  wages  for  women 
teachers.  He  declared  that  a  four  months  school  year,  the 
minimum  standard  since  1845,  was  uneconomical  because  of  the 
time  lost  in  organization  every  year,  and  wasteful  because  of 
the  loss  in  the  eight  months  between  school  terms.  His  remedy 
for  one  evil  of  the  district  system  was  transfer  of  the  power  to 
hire  teachers  from  district  trustees  to  school  committees — an 
improvement  that  might  have  had  far-reaching  effect  had  it 
received  the  sanction  of  the  General  Assembly.  The  reform 
involved  a  return  to  the  practice  before  the  Barnard  act.  The 
same  reform  was  advocated  in  the  first  report  of  the  State  Board 


184  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

of  Education.  It  was  accomplished  only  when  districts  and 
district  trustees  were  abolished.  He  based  his  recommendation 
for  the  employment  of  women  as  teachers  exclusively  upon 
efficiency,  not  as  had  Henry  Barnard  partly  on  economy,  for 
Dr.  Chapin  believed  that  women  teachers  should  be  paid  better 
wages  than  was  customary  in  his  time.  "I  have  yet  to  learn  a 
good  reason,"  he  said,  "why  a  female  teacher  doing  the  same 
service  as  a  male  teacher,  and  doing  it  better,  should  not  have 
at  least  equal  pay."  "Females  have  peculiar  talent,  and  when 
properly  educated,  have  greater  power  over  the  manners,  morals 
and  minds  of  children.  They  have  a  stonger  interest,  more 
skill,  patience,  tact.  They  have  a  facility  for  placing  them- 
selves in  sympathy  with  young  hearts.  In  matters  of  govern- 
ment and  discipline  they  often  succeed  best  where  it  was  pre- 
dicted they  would  uniformly  fail."  His  preference  for  women 
teachers  was  based  on  observation  of  school  conditions. 

A  law  enacted  in  1867  required  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  to  visit  every  school  in  the  state  annually,  and  provided 
$300  for  travelling  expenses.  In  1868  Dr.  Chapin  reported  that 
he  had  travelled  1200  miles  and  complied  with  the  law — which 
was  repealed  the  same  year.  He  was  enthusiastic  over  the 
improvement  in  school  architecture  which  he  found,  and  re- 
ported some  decrease  in  absenteeism.  Dr.  Chapin  had  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  school  conditions,  and  was  a  keen  and 
able  critic.  His  reports  were  able  and  deserved  better  con- 
sideration than  they  received  from  the  General  Assembly, 
which  adopted  few  of  his  recommendations. 

Fifteen  Years  of  Reaction. — In  the  15  years  following  the 
resignation  of  Commissioner  Potter  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  had  retired  from  a  position  of  prominence  and  influence 
in  promoting  school  legislation,  and  had  become  merely  a 
visiting  supervisor  of  schools,  whose  contact  with  the  General 
Assembly  was  confined  to  presentation  of  his  annual  report. 
His  function  as  expert  educational  adviser  of  the  General 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE   SCHOOLS.  185 

Assembly  had  been  permitted  to  lapse  from  disuse.  He  was  no 
longer  the  source  and  inspiration  of  school  legislation.  So  wide 
was  the  gap  dividing  the  General  Assembly  and  the  Commis- 
sioner that  Dr.  Chapin  became  an  humble  petitioner  for  relief 
for  the  Normal  School  at  Bristol,  gradually  tottering  to  elimina- 
tion; whereas  a  forceful  and  resourceful  Commissioner  would 
have  demanded  remedial  legislation  and  ample  support,  with 
greater  prospect  of  success.  Commissioner  Chapin  was  an  able 
schoolman,  without  the  personal  power  to  command  in  a  critical 
situation.  He  neglected  the  juridical  relations  which  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools  should  have  maintained  with  the 
General"  Assembly  while  he  was  still  the  only  state  school 
officer.  His  reports,  excellent  as  they  were  in  dealing  with 
school  problems,  ignored  comment  upon  the  adoption  and 
effect  of  legislation,  including  so  important  a  measure  as  that 
which  abolished  rate  bills,  while  the  opportunity  for  a  strong 
man  which  the  United  States  land  grant  for  college  support 
presented  was  neglected  altogether  by  him.  The  need  for  a 
State  Board  of  Education  was  more  pressing  and  more  clearly 
perceived  in  1870  than  it  had  been  when  recommended  by  Com- 
missioner Potter  in  1855.  If  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  was  to  be  merely  a  schoolman,  the  state  department 
sorely  needed  a  board  which  should  connect  it  with  the  political 
and  legislative  organization.* 

*  Important  school  legislation  from  1855  1862.  An    act    extending    the    appellate 

to  1869,  not  already  mentioned,  included:  jurisdiction  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public 

1857.  An  act  authorizing  the  Governor  Schools,    by    permitting    appeals    without 

to  appoint  a  special  commission  to  visit  proof  that  the  appellant  was  "aggrieved" 

schools  of  design  in  France,  Germany  and  or  injured  by  the  action  complained  of. 

England,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  The  law  substituted  the  words  "any  per- 

the  best  means  of  improving  manufactures  son.,  for  ..any  person  aggrieved." 
dependent  upon  design.     The  act  carried 

no  appropriation;    the  purpose  of  the  act  1867-  An  act  permitting  towns  to  raise 

was  to  empower  the  Governor  to  issue  to  a  by  tax  and  appropriate  not  exceeding  25 

party  already  formed  for  the  journey  the  cents   per   $100    of    taxable    property   for 

credentials  necessary  to  insure  their  recog-  library  purposes. 

nition  abroad. 

1869.  An  act  increasing  the  salary  of  the 
1859.  An   act   empowering  school   com-  .    . 

..,,..  ,          ,  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to  $loOO, 

mittees  to  select  school  sites  and  condemn 

land,  not  exceeding  one  acre,  for  each  site.        the  amount  Paid  Henrv  Barnard. 


186  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

AN  OPPORTUNITY  NEGLECTED. 

Senator  Morrill  of  Vermont,  in  1857,  introduced  in  Congress 
an  act  granting  public  lands  to  the  several  states  for  the  support 
of  agricultural  colleges.  The  bill  was  passed  by  Congress  in 
1859,  but  vetoed  by  the  President.  A  revised  bill  was  intro- 
duced in  1861,  passed  June  19,  1862,  and  approved  by  the 
President,  July  2,  1862.  It  provided  for  the  granting  of  30,000 
acres  of  public  land  for  each  Senator  and  Representative  in 
Congress  for  "the  endowment,  support  and  maintenance  of  at 
least  one  college  (in  each  state)  whose  leading  object  shall  be, 
without  excluding  other  scientific  and  classical  studies,  and 
including  military  tactics,  to  teach  such  branches  of  learning  as 
are  related  to  agriculture,  in  such  manner  as  the  legislatures  of 
the  states  may,  respectively,  prescribe,  in  order  to  promote  the 
liberal  and  practical  education  of  the  industrial  classes  in  the 
several  pursuits  and  professions  of  life."  No  state  was  per- 
mitted by  the  act  to  locate  public  lands  beyond  its  own  borders ; 
the  act  provided  for  an  issue  of  land  scrip,  which  a  state  unable 
to  locate  lands  might  assign,  the  income  of  the  fund  realized 
from  such  a  sale  to  be  applied  for  the  purposes  named  in  the  act. 
Rhode  Island,  in  1863,  transferred  its  right  to  Brown  University, 
stipulating  that  the  university  should  establish  a  school  or 
department  of  agriculture,  pay  all  the  cost  of  locating  lands 
•and  perfecting  titles,  apply  the  income  arising  from  the  sale 
or  other  disposition  of  lands  to  the  support  of  the  agricultural 
school  or  department,  and  receive  and  educate  beneficiaries 
of  free  scholarships  at  $100  per  year  up  to  the  entire  income. 
The  General  Assembly  was  to  nominate,  and  the  Governor  and 
Secretary  of  State  to  appoint,  beneficiaries  from  persons  who 
would  not  otherwise  have  the  means  of  obtaining  a  college 
education. 

The  university's  attempt  to  locate  40,000  acres  of  public  land 
in  Atchison,  Kansas,  before  the  land  scrip  was  issued  failed, 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS.  187 

the  land  claimed  being  assigned  to  a  railroad  company  which 
had  filed  its  location  after  the  university's.  Dismayed  by  this 
failure  and  the  accumulating  cost  of  locating  land,  for  which 
the  General  Assembly  declined  to  reimburse  the  university  in 
any  part,  the  university  applied  for  and  was  granted  permission 
in  1865  to  sell  the  land  scrip,  realizing  therefrom  $50,000  in 
government  bonds. 

A  Hard  Bargain  and  a.  Bad  One. — The  state  had  made  a  hard 
bargain  with  the  university,  and  the  latter  had  undertaken  an 
obligation  which  it  scarcely  could  afford  to  perform — that  is, 
apply  the  income  of  the  fund  both  to  establishing  and  main- 
taining a  school  of  agriculture  and  to  free  scholarships.  A  report 
by  a  committee  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1869  that  neither 
the  state  nor  the  university  had  acted  in  good  faith  seems  to 
have  been  amply  justified.  The  state  had  avoided  its  obliga- 
tion to  establish  a  school  of  agriculture  by  assigning  its  land 
scrip  to  the  university;  the  university  had  reached  out  for  the 
endowment  without  having  the  means  to  conform  to  the  terms 
of  the  grant.  Its  only  compliance  therewith  was  the  designa- 
tion of  certain  courses  of  lectures  on  agriculture  as  a  department 
of  agriculture.  Other  committees  of  the  General  Assembly 
reported  from  time  to  time  that  there  had  been  no  practical 
compliance  with  the  letter  or  spirit  of  the  law.  The  university, 
on  the  other  hand,  asserted  its  willingness  to  provide  practical 
instruction  in  agriculture  if  the  state  or  citizens  would  provide  a 
suitable  farm  for  demonstration  and  experimental  purposes,  and 
money  for  the  purchase  of  suitable  apparatus  and  equipment, 
but  contended  that  it  was  unable  to  do  either  from  the  land 
grant  money  or  its  income,  while  still  yielding  to  the  state  the 
tuitions  of  holders  of  state  scholarships.  The  General  Assem- 
bly did  nothing  to  relieve  the  situation;  on  the  other  hand,  it 
continued  to  nominate  beneficiaries  for  free  scholarships  at  the 
university. 


188  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

A  State  Agricultural  School. — In  1888  the  state  made  an  appro- 
priation for  the  establishment  of  an  experiment  station  and 
agricultural  school  at  Kingston,  to  which  was  assigned  the 
$15,000  provided  by  the  Hatch  act  of  1887,  for  the  assistance 
of  state  experiment  stations.  Brown  University,  in  1890, 
offered  to  surrender  to  the  state  the  $50,000  realized  from  the 
sale  of  land  scrip.  The  General  Assembly  was  not  in  session  at 
the  time  and  the  Governor  asked  the  Supreme  Court  for  an 
advisory  opinion.  The  court  (17  R.  I.  815)  declared  that  the 
school  at  Kingston  was  not  entitled  to  the  Morrill  grant,  He- 
cause  it  did  not  purport  to  be  a  "college  of  agriculture  and 
mechanic  arts,"  and  that  Brown  University,  as  the  only  institu- 
tion in  the  state  of  collegiate  grade  teaching  agriculture,  was 
the  proper  custodian.  A  law  providing  further  Federal  aid* 
by  an  annual  appropriation  for  land  grant  colleges,  promised 
to  improve  the  situation  so  far  as  the  university  was  concerned, 
and  Brown  University,  in  view  of  the  court's  opinion  and  the 
new  act  of  Congress,  withdrew  its  offer  of  surrender.  The  state, 
in  1892,  designated  the  school  at  Kingston  a  college,  and  an 
agreement  was  negotiated  with  the  university  for  a  surrender 
of  the  original  grant,  upon  payment  of  $40,000  to  the  university. 

Neither  Rhode  Island  nor  Brown  University  had  realized  in 
1862  or  at  any  time  in  the  30  years  that  followed,  an  opportunity 
for  both  to  make  Brown  University  a  state  university..  A  com- 
paratively small  annual  state  appropriation  would  have  sufficed 
to  start  in  the  university  a  genuine  agricultural  department  or 
college  of  agriculture,  complying  with  the  Morrill  law,  as  the 
beginning  of  a  state  institution.  Brown  University  lost  its 
opportunity  to  obtain  aid  from  the  state,  which  must  have  been 
forthcoming  had  the  university  acted  in  complete  good  faith. 
Whether  the  result  reached  in  1892 — the  establishment  of  a 
distinctly  state  college  and  the  continued  maintenance  of  the 
university  as  an  independent,  privately  endowed  institution — 

*The  Morrill  act  of  1890. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS.  189 

was  the  wisest  solution  is  still  a  subject  for  debate,  with  no 
prospect  of  substantial  agreement,  although  with  the  continued 
progress  of  the  Rhode  Island  State  College,  the  debate  tends 
to  become  academic  rather  than  practical.  Against  the  cost 
of  duplication  of  plants  must  be  set  the  advantage  of  having 
two  institutions  of  collegiate  rank  in  a  small  state,  one  of  them 
the  state's  own  college,  and  the  other  a  university  guaranteed 
by  its  charter  the  broadest  possible  liberty  in  teaching. 

Very  few  of  the  beneficiaries  of  free  scholarships  in  Brown 
University  under  the  Morrill  grant  became  farmers.  On  the 
other  hand,  among  them  were  one  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Rhode  Island,  two  associate  justices  of  the  same  court, 
three  or  more  justices  of  the  Superior  Court,  several  district 
court  judges,  clerks  of  courts,  eminent  lawyers  whose  leadership 
at  the  bar  was  undisputed,  clergymen  and  physicians,  editors, 
substantial  and  successful  business  men,  more  than  one  member 
of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  two  college  professors,  a 
mayor  of  the  city  of  Providence,  a  mayor  of  the  city  of  Paw- 
tucket,  a  secretary  of  state,  many  members  of  the  General 
Assembly.  These  were  men  who  did  not  "have  the  means  of 
obtaining  an  education  for  themselves."  Their  records  in  after 
life  are  indisputable  proof  that  the  income  of  the  Morrill  fund 
was  used  well  by  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Brown  Uni- 
versity, even  if  not  for  the  purpose  specified  in  the  law  and  not 
probably  to  the  best  advantage  ultimately. 

A  VIGOROUS  COMMISSIONER. 

Thomas  W.  Bicknell  succeeded  Joshua  B.  Chapin  as  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools  in  June,  1869.  He  renewed,  in  his 
first  report,  Commissioner  Potter's  recommendation,  made  in 
1855,  that  a  State  Board  of  Education  be  created,  pnd  the 
necessary  legislation  was  enacted  in  1870. 

State  Board  of  Education. — A  board  of  eight  members  was 
established,  consisting  of  the  Governor,  Lieutenant  Governor 


190  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

and  six  members  elected  by  the  General  Assembly,  two  from 
Providence  county,  and  one  each  from  Bristol,  Kent,  Newport 
and  Washington  counties.  "The  general  supervision  and  con- 
trol of  the  public  schools  .  .  .  with  such  high  schools, 
normal  schools  and  normal  institutions  as  are  or  may  be  estab- 
lished and  maintained  wholly  or  in  part  by  the  state,"  were 
vested  in  the  new  board.  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
remained  dispenser  of  the  state  school  money,  the  state  visiting 
and  inspecting  school  officer,  and  the  repository  of  judicial 
power,  and  he  became  secretary  ex-officio  of  the  board.  Instead 
of  being  appointed  by  the  Governor  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate,  he  was  for  some  time  nominated  by  the 
board  for  appointment  by  the  Governor,  but  afterward  elected 
by  the  board.  He  was  directed  to  report  to  the  board  annually 
instead  of  to  the  General  Assembly.  The  board,  in  turn,  re- 
ported to  the  General  Assembly,  thus  becoming  the  connecting 
link  between  the  school  department  and  the  General  Assembly. 
The  Board  of  Education,  in  its  report  to  the  General  Assembly 
in  1875,  declared  that  it  occupied  only  an  advisory  relation  to 
the  school  system,  with  the  exception  of  its  power  to  elect  the 
Commissioner.  There  is  a  vast  difference,  however,  between 
a  bare  advisory  power  and  an  advisory  power  accompanied  with 
the  power  to  elect  the  officer  to  be  advised.  The  Board  of 
Education,  in  after  years,  became  more  influential,  as  its  powers 
and  duties  were  widened  by  the  General  Assembly.  The  crea- 
tion of  the  board  made  the  Governor  a  responsible  school 
officer  through  his  position  as  President  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education.  Scarcely  a  Governor  since  1870  has  failed  to  devote 
a  section  of  his  inaugural  message  to  schools  and  education,  a 
fact  of  utmost  importance,  because  no  state  paper  receives 
wider  circulation  and  is  more  generally  read  than  the  Governor's 
message. 

Rhode    Island    Normal    School    Established. — Commissioner 
Bicknell  also  undertook  a  vigorous  agitation  for  the  establish- 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS.  191 

ment  of  a  state  normal  school.  His  appeal  to  the  General 
Assembly  was  supplemented  by  an  appeal  to  the  people  and  the 
press.  A  popular  demonstration,  followed  by  a  clambake,  was 
held  at  Rocky  Point  under  the  leadership  of  the  Commissioner; 
the  newspapers  heartily  supported  the  Commissioner.  The 
Board  of  Education  recommended  a  normal  school  in  its  first 
report  to  the  General  Assembly,  and  a  free  normal  school  was 
authorized  in  1871,  with  an  appropriation  of  $10,000.  The 
management  was  entrusted  to  the  Board  of  Education  and  the 
Commissioner,  as  a  board  of  trustees.  To  provide  for  equaliza- 
tion of  opportunity,  provision  for  paying  mileage  for  normal 
school  pupils  was  made  through  an  annual  appropriation. 
Temporary  quarters  were  established  in  Normal  Hall,  a  build- 
ing previously  occupied  by  the  High  Street  Congregational 
Church  in  Providence.  In  1875  the  state  purchased  for  the 
Normal  School  the  high  school  building  on  Benefit  street  in 
Providence,  which  was  renovated  and  occupied  after  the  city 
high  school  was  removed  to  the  then  new  building,  the  present 
English  High  school,  on  Summer  street.  A  two-year  course 
was  inaugurated. 

A  Weak  Certificate  Law. — The  Board  of  Trustees  was  also 
made  a  board  for  the  examination  and  certification  of  teachers. 
School  committees,  however,  retained  similar  power,  and  save 
for  issuing  certificates  to  graduates  of  the  Normal  School,  the 
Board  of  Trustees  issued  only  one  certificate  to  a  teacher  up 
to  1879.  In  that  instance  a  candidate  rejected  by  a  school 
committee  demanded  examination  by  the  board,  received  a 
certificate  and  was  appointed  a  teacher  in  a  district  school  in  the 
town  whose  school  committee  had  refused  him  a  certificate. 
The  situation  produced  was  exactly  similar  to  that  which  had 
broken  down  the  system  of  certification  outlined  in  the  Barnard 
act.  Few  teachers  availed  themselves  of  the  higher  certificate 
privileges  provided  by  the  law  of  1845,  and  town  committees 
were  jealous  of  surrogation  or  interference  with  their  preroga- 


192  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   EHODE   ISLAND. 

lives.  The  Board  of  Education,  in  1880,  asked  to  be  relieved 
of  the  obligation  to  examine  teachers.  It  did  not  at  that  time 
realize  the  possibility  of  a  better  solution  of  the  problem  of 
certification;  it  should  have  demanded  the  exclusive  right  to 
examine  and  certify  teachers,  a  power  which  it  received  in  1898. 

Agitation  for  a  Longer  School  Year. — Commissioner  Bicknell 
continued  Dr.  Chapin's  advocacy  of  a  longer  school  year.  The 
school  year  in  1869  was  41  weeks,  the  maximum,  in  Providence, 
and  it  was  20  weeks,  the  minimum,  in  West  Greenwich.  In 
Providence  a  full  12  months  school  year  established  in  1800, 
was  broken  in  1832  by  an  August  vacation  of  one  week.  The 
vacation  was  extended  to  two  weeks  in  1834,  and  to  three  weeks 
in  1849.  Vacation  periods  between  quarters  were  introduced 
in  1840,  reducing  the  school  year  to  46  weeks.  It  became  45 
weeks  in  1848,  44  weeks  in  1855,  43  weeks  in  1858,  41  weeks  in 
1868,  40  weeks  in  1875  and  39  weeks  in  1888.  The  average 
public  school  year,  outside  of  Providence  and  Newport,  was 
three  months  in  1831.  The  Barnard  act  made  the  minimum 
legal  school  year  four  months.  Whereas  the  school  year  in  the 
cities  tended  to  decrease,  the  towns  made  a  gradual  advance. 
Commissioner  Bicknell  advocated  a  minimum  of  35  \veeks. 
The  Revised  Statutes  of  1872  established  the  minimum  at  six 
months,  a  standard  already  attained  by  most  towns.  The 
average  school  year  WFS  34  weeks  in  1871,  a  record  exceeded 
at  that  time  by  only  one  state;  and  it  was  35  weeks  and  4  days 
in  1873,  being  then  the  longest  in  New  England.  It  was  nine 
months  in  1876,  but  Commissioner  Stockwell  then  pointed  out 
the  deception  of  averages  by  showing  the  influence  of  towns 
maintaining  10  months  schools  in  offsetting  shorter  school  years 
elsewhere.  In  the  law  the  minimum  legal  school  year  remained 
at  six  months  until  the  abolition  of  districts  in  1904.  Whether 
there  was  a  legal  minimum  school  year  between  1904  and  1909 
is  doubtful;  there  was  none  after  1909  until  1914,  when  it  was 
fixed  at  36  weeks,  a  standard  at  that  time  maintained  or  exceeded 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS    TO    FREE   SCHOOLS.  193 

-by  every  town  in  the  state.  Rhode  Island  maintains  the 
longest  legal  minimum  school  year  and  the  longest  average 
school  year  in.  the  United  States. 

A  Campaign  Against  Illiteracy. — Reference  to  Commissioner 
BicknelPs  campaign  against  illiteracy  and  his  proposed  remedies 
therefor  has  already  been  made.  In  1873  he  named  seven 
causes  for  poor  enrollment  in  public  schools:  (1)  Private 
schools,  (2)  Catholic  schools,  (3)  evening  schools,  (4)  employ- 
ment of  children  in  factories,  (5)  early  introduction  of  children 
into  trades  and  other  employment,  (6)  immigration,  (7)  truancy. 
In  1872  he  advocated  the  establishment  of  a  state  industrial 
school,  to  provide  a  place  for  the  commitment  of  neglected 
children  and  an  institution  for  their  education  in  useful  in- 
dustrial arts. 

Among  other  measures  which  he  recommended  were  con- 
solidation of  school  districts;  extension  of  town  control  of 
schools,  and  more  particularly  of  the  powers  of  school  com- 
mittees; expert  supervision  for  schools;  a  general  state  tax  for 
educational  purposes,  the  revenue  t6  be  apportioned  in  such 
manner  as  to  relieve  small  towns  of  the  heavy  burdens  of  taxa- 
tion; a  school  census,  as  a  first  step  toward  improving  school 
enrollment;  salaries  for  school  committeemen,  whose  service 
in  Rhode  Island  has  usually  been  without  compensation;  a 
reduction  in  the  number  of  school  officers,  from  the  2216  serving 
in  various  capacities  in  1874;  a  state  system  of  school  examina- 
tions and  supervision  modelled  on  the  Irish  plan,  which  the 
Commissioner  described  as  being  then  the  best  in  the  world; 
the  introduction  of  instruction  in  drawing  in  all  schools,  as  a 
study  absolutely  essential  to  the  development  of  Rhode  Island 
industries.  Mr.  Bicknell  published  a  "School  Manual"  in 
1873,  continuing  under  a  new  name  the  series  of  "Acts  Relating 
to  the  Public  Schools,"  printed  in  1845,  1846,  1847,  1851,  1857 
and  1867.  He  began  the  accumulation. of  an  educational  library 
in  the  office  of  the  Commissioner,  for  which  he  solicited  dona- 


194  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   BHODE    ISLAND. 

tions  from  publishers.  The  General  Assembly  made  his  salary* 
$2000  in  1870.  He  resigned  in  1874,  to  become  editor  of  the 
New  England  Journal  of  Education  in  1875. 

Commissioner  Bicknell's  Success. — Commissioner  Bicknell's 
service  to  the  state  was  important,  not  so  much  because  of 
novelty  or  innovation  in  his  recommendations,  as  because  of  the 
successful  inauguration  of  so  many  of  them  during  his  tenure  of 
office.  In  all  of  his  measures  for  improvement  there  is  scarcely 
one  which  had  not  been  proposed  at  some  earlier  time  by  one  or 
more  of  his  predecessors.  His  renewal  of  Commissioner  Potter's 
recommendation  that  a  Board  of  Education  be  created,  was 
made  at  a  time  when  the  need  was  pressing.  Likewise  the 
necessity  for  a  normal  school  was  clearly  recognized;  the  ample 
provision  for  establishing  it  was  made  possible  by  the  repay- 
ment of  the  federal  government's  debt  to  the  state  for  war 
expenditures.  After  1870  the  Board  of  Education  was  his 
powerful  auxiliary  in  securing  legislation.  His  own  appre- 
ciation of  the  assistance  of  the  board  WPS  fervent;  the  board 
was  equally  gracious  in  its  recognition  of  "  a  diligence,  a  wisdom 
and  a  contagious  enthusiasm,  which,  it  is  believed,  has  resulted 
in  lasting  benefit  to  the  cause."  But  Commissioner  Bicknell 
did  not,  while  he  was  Commissioner,  reach  the  modern  view  of 
the  state's  lesponsibility  for  the  education  of  all  its  citizens, 
much  as  the  growth  of  illiteracy  alarmed  him.  He  was  rather 
the  last  and  one  of  the  most  forceful  of  an  old  line  of  Com- 
missioners of  Public  Schools,  than  the  founder  of  a  new  dynasty. 

THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION. 

Created  in  1870,  with  powers  vaguely  defined  and  advisory 
rather  than  functional,  the  Board  of  Education  in  its  first  report 
to  the  General  Assembly  advocated  five  measures  for  school 
betterment,  as  follows:  (1)  That  towns  be  required  to  appro- 
priate for  school  support  an  amount  at  least  equal  to  the  school 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS.          195 

money  received  from  the  state;  (2)  that  every  town  be  required 
to  employ  a  superintendent  of  schools;  (3)  that  a  normal  school 
be  established;  (4)  that  towns  be  required  to  adopt  ordinances 
dealing  with  truancy,  and  (5)  that  the  hiring  of  teachers  be  en- 
trusted exclusively  to  school  committees.  All  but  the  last  of 
these  recommendations  were  enacted  into  law  by  the  General 
Assembly  in  1871.  Thereafter  town  appropriations  must  equal 
state  appropriations,  ample  provision  for  a  normal  school  was 
made,  the  permission  previously  granted  to  towns  to  deal  with 
truants  was  changed  to  a  requirement,  and  school  committees 
were  required  to  appoint  superintendents  of  schools  in  towns 
which  failed  to  elect  such  officers.  Providence  had  appointed 
its  first  full-time  superintendent  of  schools  in  1839.  -Pre- 
vious to  1850  the  practice  of  appointing  school  visitors  had 
become  established  in  several  towns,  and  the  law  of  1851  sanc- 
tioned this  practice  and  permitted  the  employment  of  super- 
intendents. In  1872  the  Board  of  Education  recommended 
better  wages  for  teachers,  an  annual  school  census,  voluntary 
co-operation  of  manufacturers  in  enforcing  the  child  labor  law  of 
1855,  which  the  Commissioner  reported  inoperative,  and  re- 
newed its  recommendation  that  school  committees  be  given 
power  to  hire  teachers  for  district  schools.  In  1873  the  Board 
proposed  the  establishment  of  an  industrial  school  and  the 
taking  of  a  school  census. 

The  Board  of  Education's  first  important  accessions  of  power 
were  the  right  to  elect  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  and 
the  designation  of  the  Board  with  the  Commissioner  as  a  board 
of  trustees  for  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School.  When  the 
state  made  its  first  appropriation  for  evening  schools  in  1873, 
the  Board  of  Education  was  given  supervisory  powers  and  was 
made  dispenser  of  the  appropriation.  In  1875  the  board  was 
entrusted  with  the  apportionment  of  an  appropriation  to  aid 
free  public  libraries.  Many  of  the  free  public  libraries  estab- 
lished through  the  efforts  of  Henry  Barnard  and  the  philan- 


196  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

throphy  of  Asa  Manton,  who  offered  a  donation  of  $100  to  aid 
any  public  library  for  which  an  equal  amount  was  raised,  had 
disappeared.  The  act  of  1875  appropriated  annually  $50  for 
the  first  500  approved  books  in  the  library  and  $25  for  each 
additional  500  books,  up  to  $500,  the  maximum  amount  which 
any  library  might  receive.  The  money  paid  by  the  state  must 
be  used  for  the  purchase  of  books  to  increase  the  library.  The 
Board  of  Education  was  given  authority  to  establish  rules 
prescribing  the  character  of  books  approved,  and  regulating 
the  management  of  libraries  receiving  aid,  in  such  manner  as 
to  secure  free  use  thereof  by  the  people. 

THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  AND  EDUCATION. 

The  abolition  of  rate  bills,  the  two  amendments  that  raised 
the  annual  school  appropriation  to  $90,000,  the  appropriation 
of  dog  license  fees  for  support  of  schools,  the  creation  of  the 
Board  of  Education  in  1870,  and  the  approval  of  four  of  five 
of  the  board's  first  recommendations  in  1871,  leave  no  doubt 
of  the  General  Assembly's  disposition  toward  educational  reform 
in  the  period.  On  two  matters  the  General  Assembly  hesitated 
to  act;  these  were  the  abolition  of  school  districts  or  radical 

• 

interference  with  the  district  system,  and  school  attendance. 
When  the  General  Assembly  could  be  persuaded  to  act  at  all 
with  reference  to  attendance,  the  legislation  was  weak,  if  not 
impracticable  and  inoperative.  Relations  between  the  Assem- 
bly and  the  department  as  a  rule  were  harmonious,  in  spite  of 
the  Assembly's  neglect  of  some  recommendations.  There  was, 
however,  occasionally  a  note  of  discord.  Such,  for  example, 
was  the  resolution  adopted  in  1874  appointing  a  committee  to 
inquire  into  "the  workings,  cost  and  efficiency  of  the  public 
school  system  of  the  state."  It  was  repealed  at  the  same 
session,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  and 
report  changes  "which  are  necessary  in  the  laws  relating  to 
public  education." 


PUBLIC   SCHOOLS   TO    FREE   SCHOOLS.  197 

An  act  passed  in  1874  threatened  to  break  down  the  judicial 
procedure  established  by  the  Barnard  act.  For  the  provision 
permitting,  or  upon  request  requiring,  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools  to  lay  his  decisions  before  one  of  the  justices  of 
the  Supreme  Court  for  review,  the  new  law  substituted  review 
by  the  full  bench.  The  change  in  the  law  followed  the  decision 
of  Cottrell's  Appeal*  which  determined  the  Commissioner's 
jurisdiction.  The  substitution  of  hearings  in  open  court  for 
review  in  chambers  involved  delay  of  final  decision,  besides  the 
abandonment  of  most  of  the  benefits  of  the  earlier  system. 
After  a  brief  trial,  in  which  the  unwisdom  of  the  change  became 
apparent,  the  law  of  1874  was  repealed. 

A  committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  in  1875,  examined 
thoroughly  the  question  of  tax  exemption.  The  controversy 
that  Commission  Potter  had  repressed  a  generation  earlier 
had  been  revived  by  the  incorporation  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
diocese  of  Providence  after  it  was  set  apart  from  the  diocese  of 
Hartford,  and  by  a  rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  Catholic 
parochial  schools  and  in  the  attendance  of  children  of  school 
age  at  these  schools  instead  of  at  the  public  schools.  It  was 
anomalous,  of  course,  that  a  state  dedicated  to  religious  liberty, 
which  still  hesitated  to  enact  compulsory  school  attendance  laws 
or  adequate  laws  dealing  with  truancy,  or  laws  effectively 
regulating  the  employment  of  children  in  factories,  should 
interfere  in  any  way  with  attendance  at  private  or  parochial 
schools.  After  four  hearings,  at  which  tax  exemption  was 
exhaustively  debated,  the  committee  reported  a  bill  abolishing 
tax  exemption  of  land,  but  exempting  buildings  used  for  religious 
and  library  purposes.  The  General  Assembly  was  more  liberal 
than  its  committee;  the  law  that  was  enacted  exempted  land 
and  buildings  used  for  religious  and  library  purposes  and  for 
free  public  schools.  In  a  test  case  the  Supreme  Court  decided 
that  Catholic  parochial  schools,  though  charging  no  tuition, 

*10  R.  I.  615. 


198  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

were  not  "free  public  schools."  St.  Joseph's  Church  vs.  As- 
sessors, 12  R.  I.  19.  As  it  abolished  tax  exemption,  the  new 
law  took  away  from  school  committees  the  right,  established 
by  law  in  1855,  to  visit  and  inspect  private  and  parochial  schools. 
The  truancy  law  of  1883  revived  the  right  of  school  com- 
mittees, to  the  extent  that  it  permitted  school  attendance  at 
"approved"  private  schools  in  lieu  of  attendance  at  public 
schools,  and  tax  exemption  was  restored  in  1894. 

The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  instructed  to  report 
at  the  May  session  in  1875  whether  any  and  what  means  were 
used  in  the  public  schools  "  to  implant  and  cultivate  in  the  minds 
of  all  children  .  .  .  the  principles  of  morality  and  virtue." 
Commissioner  StockwelPs  report  was  admirable.  He  cited  the 
practice  regulating  the  reading  of  the  Bible  and  the  opening  of 
school  sessions  with  prayer  or  other  devotional  exercises,  and 
emphasized  the  importance  of  the  teacher's  influence  and 
example. 

A   MODERN   COMMISSIONER  — HIS   FIGHT  FOR 
COMPULSORY  ATTENDANCE. 

Thomas  B.  Stockwell  succeeded  Thomas  W.  Bicknell  as 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  in  January,  1875,  remaining  in 
office  continuously  until  1905.  He  had  been  a  teacher  in  the 
Providence  high  school  and  editor  of  the  Rhode  Island  School- 
master previous  to  his  election  as  Commissioner.  With  him 
begins  the  distinctly  modern  history  of  Rhode  Island  public 
schools,  for  he  was  the  first  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to 
enunciate  distinctly  the  doctrine  of  compulsory  attendance. 
He  advanced  from  the  notion  of  the  duty  of  the  state  to  provide 
opportunity  for  education  for  all,  to  the  obligation  of  the  state, 
as  the  agent  of  society,  to  compel  the  education  of  all  its  citizens. 

Commissioner  Stockwell,  with  the  co-operation  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  undertook,  almost  immediately  after  his  election, 
an  active  campaign  to  improve  school  attendance.  "Tnh'is  first 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE   SCHOOLS.  199 

report  he  declared  that  the  great  cause  of  non-attendance  at 
school  was  the  social  condition  created  by  the  prevailing  indus- 
trial organization.  The  fault  lay  partly  with  parents,  but 
children  themselves  were  quite  as  much  to  blame.  The  chil- 
dren's desire  for  pleasure  and  for  dress  and  adornment  beyond 
the  means  of  the  parent  to  supply,  induced  children  to  seek 
employment  in  older  to  obtain  as  wages  the  money  needed  to 
gratify  their  wishes.  Quoting  Horace  Mann's  axiom  that  every 
child  has  a  right  to  education,  Commissioner  Stockwell  declared 
that  society  had  a  right  to  demand  that  every  child  be  educated, 
and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  state  to  enforce  society's  right. 
He  recommended  an  annual  school  census,  an  industrial  school 
and  a  state  truancy  law  to  replace  municipal  ordinances.  He 
pointed  out  clearly  that  the  act  requiring  towns  to  adopt 
truancy  regulations  merely  attempted  to  shift  a  responsibility 
obligating  the  state,  from  the  state  to  the  towns,  and  also  that 
the  law,  though  mandatory  in  form,  was  ineffective  because 
there  were  no  way  to  compel  a  town  to  act,  no  penalty  for  failure 
to  act,  and  no  machinery  for  compelling  enforcement  if  the  town 
adopted  an  ordinance. 

Returning  to  the  same  subject  in  his  second  report,  he  again 
urged  compulsory  education,  an  industrial  school  and  the 
provision  of  an  institution  to  which  truants  might  be  com- 
mitted. Discussing  illiteracy,  he  presented  census  figures  to 
show  that  in  a  population  of  205,101  over  10  years  of  age, 
7941  could  not  read  and  24,168  could  not  read  and  write  their 
own  names;  that  from  a  school  population  of  53,316,  approxi- 
mately 8000  did  not  attend  any  school.  Again  laying  the 
blame  for  such  conditions  on  the  industrial  system,  he  found 
the  largest  proportion  of  illiteracy  among  Irish  and  French- 
Canadian  immigrants  who  were  mill  operatives.  He  declared 
that  the  law  purporting  to  regulate  truancy  and  the  employ- 
ment of  children  in  factories  was  so  completely  inoperative  that 
few  citizens  knew  such  a  law  was  on  the  statute  books.  He 


200  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

suggested  an  agreement  with  manufacturers  to  assist  in  enforc- 
ing the  law.  Governor  Lippitt  was  enlisted  in  the  good  cause, 
and  in  his  inaugural  message  urged  an  effort  for  improvement. 

Annual  School  Census. — In  1878  Commissioner  Stockwell 
again  recommended  a  school  census,  a  state  truancy  law,  a 
modification  of  the  child  labor  law,  the  appointment  of  agents 
to  enforce  the  laws,  and  compulsory  enforcement.  The  Board 
of  Education  indorsed  his  recommendations.  A  law  requiring 
towns  to  take  a  school  census  annually  was  enacted  in  1878, 
furnishing  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and  the  Board 
of  Education  with  the  first  accurate  information  on  this  im- 
portant subject,  and  with  evidence  adequate  to  prove  the  need 
for  more  legislation.  In  1884  the  Commissioner  reported  : 

The  annual  school  census  has  now  been  taken  for  a  sufficient 
number  of  years  to  demonstrate  its  value  and  reliability  as  a 
source  of  information  not  otherwise  attainable.  Its  general 
results  and  conclusions  are  so  well  supported  by  collateral 
testimony  that  they  justly  command  recognition  and  acceptance. 
Each  successive  census  has  revealed  a  steady,  natural  growth 
in  the  population  of  the  whole  state,  and  more  than  a  corre- 
sponding increase  in  the  number  of  non-attendants  at  school. 
The  proportion  of  such  persons  by  the  present  census  is  over 
25  per  cent,  of  the  whole  school  population.  The  significant 
fact  to  be  noted  in  connection  with  these  figures  is  that  the 
ratio  of  increase  for  non-attendance  is  greater  than  that  of  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  children,  and  that  has  been  the  case 
from  the  beginning  of  the  school  census.  This  shows  beyond  a 
doubt  that  we  have  actually  lost  ground  in  our  contest  with 
ignorance,  instead  of  gaining  or  even  maintaining  our  position." 

The  State  Board  Aroused. — In  1883  the  Commissioner  re- 
ported, that  of  all  the  northern  states,  Rhode  Island  had  the 
largest  proportion  of  illiterates,  "her  percentage  of  all  who  are 
10  years  of  age  and  over  being  11.2,  against  5.9  for  all  other 
northern  states  and  territories."  More  than  a  quarter  of  those 
of  foreign  birth  could  not  sign  their  own  names.  The  per- 
centage of  native  born  white  persons  10  years  and  upward  who 
could  not  write  was  2.9,  "a  rate  double  that  of  the  rest  of  New 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS.  201 

England,  nearly  three  times  as  large  as  that  of  Connecticut  and 
four  times  that  of  Massachusetts."  Taking  up  these  statistics 
in  1884,  the  Board  of  Education' declared  : 

"Viewed  absolutely,  it  may  not  be  a  serious  menace  to  the 
welfare  of  the  state  that  out  of  every  100  of  its  population  above 
10  years  of  age  somewhat  less  than  three  should  not  have 
attained  even  that  slight  amount  of  education  which  is  indicated 
by  the  ability  to  write  one's  name.  As  long  as  Rhode  Island 
stands -last — and  last  by  a  considerable  interval — in  such  a 
tabular  statement  as  that  to  which  reference  is  made,  there  is 
call  for  other  action  than  self-congratulation.  While  we  are 
not,  however,  disposed  to  make  too  much  of  this  comparative 
exhibit,  nor  to  forget  that  figures  often  mislead  for  want  of 
proper  interpretation,  we  find  in  it  the  suggestion  of  two  im- 
portant needs,  first  of  a  right  system,  and  second  of  a  vigorous 
administration  of  the  system.  We  undertake  here  no  general 
discussion  of  our  state  system  of  public  education.  We  only 
take,  the  opportunity  to  reaffirm  our  conviction  of  the  import- 
ance of  making  compulsory  education  one  of  its  elements. 
With  a  population  made  up  as  ours  is,  and  composed,  in  con- 
siderable measure,  of  persons  whose  immediate  interest  is 
opposed  to  the  permanent  interest  of  their  children  and  of  the 
state,  no  measure  short  of  this  will  be  found  adequate  to  the 
need.  That  we  should  be  behind  other  states,  our  neighbors, 
in  the  matter  of  educational  attainment  might  be  only  our 
misfortune.  That  we  should  be  behind  them  in  recognizing  and 
adopting  the  only  efficient  remedy  for  the  trouble  would  be 
something  "other  than  a  misfortune." 

A  New  Truancy  Law. — Meanwhile,  in  1883,  the  General  As- 
sembly had  enacted  an  absence  and  truancy  law*  embodying  the 

*  The  important  provisions  of  the  law  .         3.     The  employment  of  children  under  10 
were  :  in  manufacturing  or  mechanical  establish- 

1.  Parents  were  required  to  send  chil-       ments  was  forbidden. 

dren  between  the  ages  of  7  and  15  years  4.     No  child  under  14  could  be  employed 

at  least  12  weeks  annually,  six  of  which  in  such  establishments  without  a  certificate 

must  be  consecutive,  to  some  public  day  that  he'  had  attended  some  public  or  private 

school,  or  to  an  approved  private  school,  day  school  12  weeks  in  the  preceding  year, 

unless  the  child  was  otherwise  furnished  and  unless  he  attended  school  12  weeks 

with  the  means  of  education,  or  had  ac-  each  year;  and  no  child  under  14  who  could 

quired  the  elementary  branches  taught  in  not  write  his  name,  age  and  place  of  resi- 

the    public  schools,    or    was    mentally  or  dence   legibly,    could   be   employed   while 

physically  incapacitated.  public  schools  were  in  session. 

2.  School    committees    could    approve  5.     Town  councils  were  required  to  ap- 
private  schools  only  when  the  instruction  point  truant  officers,  (1)  to  investigate  cases 
was  in  the  English  language,  and  thorough  of  failure  to  send  children  to  school,  (2)  to 
and  efficient,  but  could  not  refuse  approval  prosecute  offenders,  (3)  to  visit  places  where 
because  of  religious  teaching. 


202  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

principles  of  compulsory  attendance.  The  significant  sections 
of  the  law  (1)  charged  parents  with  responsibility  for  sending 
children  to  school,  (2)  required  children  working  in  factories  to 
present  certificates  of  school  attendance,  (3)  provided  for  the 
appointment  of  truant  officers,  (4)  forbade,  while  public  schools 
were  in  session,  the  employment  of  children  under  14  who  were 
unable  to  write  legibly  their  names,  ages  and  places  of  residence, 
and  (5)  provided  penalties  for  certain  violations  of  the  law  by 
parents,  truant  children  and  employers,  but  (6)  no  penalty  to  be 
imposed  upon  towns  failing  to  comply  with  the  law. 

The  law  marked  an  advance,  but  it  was  far  from  being 
satisfactory.  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  in  1884, 
said  that  "the  chief  defect  in  the  law  is  that  it  does  not  provide 
positively  for  its  enforcement.  Its  provisions  are  clearly  man- 
datory, but  there  is  no  power  lodged  anywhere  to  make  the 
command  obligatory.  As  it  is,  the  city  of  Providence  and  a 
number  of  towns  have  failed  utterly  to  comply  with  the  law  in 
their  municipal  capacity.  .  .  .  Either  a  penalty  clause 
should  be  added  to  the  law,  or  the  state  should  assume  charge 
of  the  matter."  This  defect  in  the  law  was  not  even  partly 
remedied  until  1887,  when  it  was  provided  that  a  town  which 
failed  to  adopt  a  truancy  ordinance  should  forfeit  one-half  its 
share  of  state  school  money. 

.  The  State  Board  Still  Dissatisfied. — The  Board  of  Education's 
criticism*  was  more  detailed  and  more  emphatic.  The  Public 

children  were  employed  and  enforce  the  tificates,  or  of  children  under  14  who  could 

certificate  law.  not  write,   (3)  for  employers  who  refused 

6.  Towns  were  required  to  adopt  regu-  to  permit  inspection  of  certificates  or  to 
lations    concerning   habitual    truants   and  furnish  information  for  truant  officers,  and 
children    found    wandering   about    in    the  by  commitment    (4)  for  children  arrested 
streets,    having   no   lawful   occupation   or  as  truants  or  vagrants. 

business,  not  attending  school, and  growing 

up  in  ignorance,  and  to  designate  places  for  *  The  text  of  the  Board's  comment  fol- 

the  confinement,  discipline  and  instruction  ^ows  : 

of  such  children.  "The  logic  of  events  is  carrying  the  state 

7.  Penalties,  by  fine,  were  provided  (1)  forward  to  full  recognition  of  the  necessity 
for  parents  neglecting  to  send  children  to  of  assuming  the  responsibility  of  the  school 
school,  or    permitting   the  employment  of  system  and  its  maintenance.     Heretofore 
children  under  10  years  of  age,  (2)  for  em-  the  legislation  of  the  state  has  been  mainly 
ployers  of  children  under  14  without  cer-  permissive,  not  mandatory.     It  has  made 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS. 


203 


Statutes  of  1882  had  cured  the  defect  in  the  school  law  on 
which  the  decision  in  Wixon  vs.  Newport*  was  based,  replacing 
with  a  mandatory  statute  the  legislation  that  merely  per- 
mitted town  support  of  public  schools.  The  influence  of  the 
decision  appeared  in  the  language  of  the  board.  Asserting  (1) 
that  "the  logic  of  events  is  carrying  the  state  forward  to  full 
recognition  of  the  necessity  of  assuming  the  responsibility  of  a 
school  system  and  its  maintenance,"  and  (2)  that  legislation 
had  "been  mainly  permissive,  not  mandatory,"  and  (3)  that 
the  assumption  that  "an  offer  of  a  free  education  opening  the 
pathway  of  usefulness  and  honor  to  all  ...  would  be 
universally  accepted"  had  not  been  justified,  and  (4)  that  "the 
present  illiteracy  of  Rhode  Island  is  conspicuous  and  humilia- 


laws  according  to  which  communities  may 
sustain  schools,  and  has  levied  taxes  to  en- 
courage communities  to  do  so,  but  it  has 
not  made  schools  necessary,  nor  has  it  taken 
upon  itself  to  provide  them.  And  to  some- 
thing equivalent  to  this  the  state  is  now 
being  forced  by  events.  The  argument  in 
a  nutshell  is  this  :  The  people  must  be 
thoroughly  educated,  but  they  never  have 
been  by  a  voluntary  system,  and  they  never 
can  be.  It  has  only  been  when  the  state 
takes  upon  itself  to  see  that  every  child 
receives  proper  instruction  that  the  work 
is  thoroughly  done. 

"It  has  been  taken  for  granted  that  if  an 
offer  of  a  free  education  opening  the  path- 
way of  usefulness  and  honor  to  all  was 
really  made,  it  would  be  universally  ac- 
cepted. The  assumption  has  not  been 
justified.  It  costs  the  American  mind  a 
severe  trial  to  bring  itself  to  confess  that 
the  reasons  for  education  in  our  republic 
cannot  be  so  forcibly  stated  as  to  induce 
every  parent  and  guardian  to  make  the 
necessary  sacrifices  to  insure  it.  Public 
opinion  unformulated  in  law  has  not  and 
will  not  do  it.  It  is  clear  enough  that  where 
everything  depends  upon  the  will  of  the 
people,  that  will  ought  to  be  enlightened; 
that  what  is  wise  may  be  chosen  and  what 
is  unwise  may  be  rejected.  It  is  perfectly 
clear  that  if  the  will  of  the  nation  is  ignorant, 
every  national  interest  is  imperilled.  The 
material  welfare  is  endangered,  the  institu- 
tions and  safeguards  of  social  progress  are 

*13  R.  I.  454. 


menaced,  and  liberty  itself  has  no  guaranty. 
All  this  is  clear,  but  it  is  no  clearer  than 
that  John  Doe  has  no  right  to  appropriate 
Richard  Roe's  pocketbook — but  he  does  it. 
And  so  thousands  of  children,  after  munici- 
palities and  the  state  have  lavishly  afforded 
the  means  of  education,  have  grown  up  and 
are  growing  up  in  ignorance.  The  pre'sent 
illiteracy  of  Rhode  Island  is  a  conspicuous 
and  humiliating  illustration.  And  the  con- 
viction has  obtained  that  the  situation 
cannot  be  improved  upon  the  old  lines  of 
action.  Not  that  the  old  policy  is  to  be 
abandoned,  but  it  must  be  supplemented  by 
decisive  state  action. 

"Religious  zeal,  which  did  so  much  for 
the  New  England  schools  in  the  days  of 
the  Puritans  is  a  diminutive  force  now, 
owing  to  many  causes,  the  diversity  of 
religious  views  in  the  population  of  the 
country  being  doubtless  the  principal  one. 
Patriotic  regard  for  the  nation's  prosperity 
and  honor  has  induced  an  educational  ex- 
penditure greater  than  that  of  any  nation 
on  the  globe.  Philosophy  and  philan- 
throphy  have  contributed  their  aid  with 
unparalleled  zeal.  The  former  has  set 
forth  the  vast  and  far-reaching  economic 
rewards  of  intellectual  training  in  a  land  so 
rich  as  this.  The  latter  has  found  in  the 
brilliant  promise  of  the  future  a  field  for 
the  exercise  of  marvelous  enthusiasm.  It 
cannot  naturally  be  expected  these  forces 
will  prove  more  effective  in  the  future  than 
in  the  past,  and  the  conclusion  seems  irre- 


204 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 


ting,"  the  Board  of  Education  said:  "Education  should  no 
longer  be  merely  offered;  it  should  be  required."  While  hesi- 
tating to  accuse  the  General  Assembly  of  "inconsistency  and 
cowardice/'  although  the  time  for  such  accusation  "rapidly 
approaches,"  the  Board  of  Education  characterized  the  new 
truancy  law  as,  "though  an  encouraging  advance,"  not  "a 
right-out,  square  declaration  by  the  state  that  ignorance  must 
be  stamped  out,  and  every  child  God  has  made  capable  of 
intelligent  citizenship  shall  be  qualified  as  such." 

Gain  Under  the  New  Law. — The  immediate  effect  of  the  law  of 
1883  was  a  gain  in  total  enrollment,  and  an  apparent  gain  in  the 
percentage  of  enrollment  to  school  population,  which  was  78.7 


sistible  that  our  present  methods  are  de- 
fective and  ought  to  be  supplemented.  The 
urgency  is  intensified  when  we  consider  the 
vast  immigration  that  is  pouring  itself  from 
every  land  upon  us,  and  the  fact  that  the 
native  American  population  does  not  in- 
crease so  rapidly  as  the  foreign  born.  At 
the  present  rate,  the  time  is  not  very  far 
distant  when  those  of  mixed  and  foreign 
parentage  will  be  in  the  majority.  And  it 
is  a  fact  to  be  taken  in  this  connection  that 
a  low  standard  of  culture  exists  in  many 
parts  of  the  country,  West  and  South,  and, 
moreover,  many  causes  exist  to  estrange, 
looseness  of  family  ties  and  diverse  in- 
terests. These  speculations  do  not  alarm 
us  with  an  immediate  danger,  but  they  do 
call  for  immediate  provision  against  evils 
great  enough,  if  not  provided  against,  to 
wreck  the  nation.  The  danger  to  civiliza- 
tion today  is  not  from  without,  but  from 
within.  The  heterogeneous  masses  must 
be  made  homogeneous.  Those  who  inherit 
the  traditions  of  other  and  hostile  nations; 
those  who  are  bred  under  diverse  influences 
and  hold  foreign  ideas;  those  who  are  sup- 
ported by  national  inspirations  not  Ameri- 
can must  be  inducted  into  the  life  and  spirit 
of  this  New  World  and  must  be  assimi- 
lated and  Americanized.  The  chief  agency 
to  this  end  has  been  the  public  school  and 
popular  education.  No  better  agency  has 
ever  been  devised  by  man.  Its  usefulness 
hitherto  has  been  immeasureable,  but  as 
administered  it  has  not  met  the  wants  of  the 
nation,  and  if  administered  in  the  future  as 
in  the  past,  must  fall  farther  and  farther 
short  of  meeting  those  wants.  What,  then, 


if  there  is  any  truth  in  the  facts  presented 
or  force  in  the  argument  adduced,  ought  to 
be  done?  What,  if  the  people  cherish  any 
real  hope  of  an  honorable  destiny?  What, 
by  a  people  having  a  moral  purpose  worthy 
of  their  illustrious  name? 

"Education  should  no  longer  be  merely 
offered;  it  should  be  required,  and  if  the 
patriotic  citizens  have  the  courage  of  their 
convictions  and  the  good  sense  to  be  con- 
sistent, it  will  be  required.  It  is  not  yet 
time,  perhaps,  to  talk  of  inconsistency  and 
cowardice,  but  that  time  rapidly  approaches. 
The  discussions  of  the  General  Assembly 
during  the  last  few  sessions  have  greatly 
forwarded  the  public  sentiment  which  de- 
mands that  our  system  of  education  be 
made  more  effective  by  the  enactment  of  a 
comprehensive  and  unequivocal  compulsory 
law.  The  truancy  law  enacted  a  little  more 
than  a  year  ago,  though  an  encouraging 
advance,  is  not  a  right-out,  square  declara- 
tion by  the  state  that  ignorance  shall  be 
stamped  out  and  every  child  God  has  made 
capable  of  intelligent  citizenship  shall  be 
qualified  as  such.  The  law  makes  it  possi- 
ble for  localities — yes,  for  all  the  localities 
of  the  state — to  make  that  declaration,  but 
it  does  not  make  it  itself.  Next  time,  it  is 
hoped  that,  with  more  heart  and  strength- 
ened convictions,  the  Assembly  will  be  able 
to  take  full  responsibility  and  express  in 
the  statutes  of  the  commonwealth  what 
has  been  the  intention  of  the  people  from 
the  beginning — the  purpose  to  educate  all. 
The  law  will  not  leave  it  optional  with  the 
city  or  municipality  whether  to  ignore  the 
action  of  the  state  or  not.  It  will  require 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS. 


205 


in  1879,  76.5  in  1880,  76  in  1881,  75.2  in  1882,  74.8  in  1883, 
78.1  in  1884,  and  81.3  in  1885.  Improvement  in  the  thorough- 
ness of  the  school  census  may  account  in  some  part,  however, 
for  the  loss  in  percentage  of  enrollment  from  1879  to  1883. 
The  gains  in  1884  and  1885  were  pronounced  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  only  15  towns  had  complied  fully  with  the  law.  For  the 
same  years  the  percentages  of  absenteeism  reducing  attendance 
among  those  enrolled  to  less  than  12  weeks,  were  5  in  1879, 
3.6  in  1880,  4.8  in  1881,  4.6  in  1882,  3.8  in  1883,  3.5  in  1884, 
3.9  in  1885.  The  gain  in  enrollment  was  not  maintained, 
however;  the  percentage  fell  off  from  81.3  in  1885  to  78.6  in 
1886. 


conformable  action,  and  will  provide  pen- 
alties, and  executive  procedure  for  enforc- 
ing its  requirements.  Meanwhile  the 
present  law  has  a  salutary  effect.  Its  en- 
actment has  very  greatly  increased  the 
enrollment  throughout  the  state.  In 
municipalities  where  the  councils  have 
passed  no  ordinances,  individual  employers 
of  children,  under  an  awakened  sentiment 
of  patriotism,  not  to  say  true  honor,  have 
felt  it  a  duty  to  refuse  to  employ  youth  of 
school  age  who  have  not  received  the  edu- 
cation contemplated  by  law,  and  have  not 
done  so.  Some  towns  having  ordinances 
adopted  in  conformity  with  the  intention  of 
the  statute  expect  to  enroll  in  the  schools, 
public  or  parochial,  every  child  employed 
in  their  manufacturing  establishments.  This 
is  an  important  advance.  It  shows  a  per- 
vasive public  sentiment  and  enthusiasm 
that  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  subside,  but 
should  be  improved  by  the  enactment  of  still 
necessary  laws.  The  public  expect  it — de- 
mand it.  If  the  state  means  what  it  seems 
to  say,  let  it  say  it  so  there  can  be  no  escape. 
If  the  statute  remains  as  now,  there  is 
danger  that  the  towns  which  have  ordi- 
nances and  are  at  the  trouble  of  shifting 
help  every  term  will  weary  of  this  annoy- 
ance. Why  should  they  be  at  such  pains, 
when  others  are  doing  nothing  of  the  kind? 
Again,  if  the  law  remains  as  now,  the  towns 
which  refuse  to  employ  children  who  have 
not  received  the  prescribed  instruction  will 
lose  their  help.  It  has  been,  in  this  short 
time,  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  family  of 
five  to  leave  town  for  another  locality, 


simply  because  employment  was  refused  a 
minor  who  ought  to  have  been  at  school. 
When  help  is  scarce,  it  is  an  aggravation  t6 
lose  a  whole  family  to  another  establishment 
just  across  the  river,  because  no  truant  or 
absentee  ordinances  have  been  adopted. 
The  town  that  does  not  execute  the  law  is  a 
provocation  to  the  town  that  does,  to  repeal 
the  law.  So  far  it  is  only  just  to  say,  that 
employers  of  juvenile  help  have  been  ready 
to  recognize  their  obligations.  The  objec- 
tions and  difficulties  are  almost  wholly  with 
the  parents,  some  of  whom  are  poor,  but 
many  of  whom  are  sordid.  The  cases  of 
hardship,  which  have  been  anticipated,  and 
which  have  hindered  action  so  long,  have 
been  humanely  dealt  with  through  the 
half-missionary  and  half-educational  offices 
of  the  schpol  committee  and  then-  agent, 
the  truant  officer;  and  so  far,  it  is  not 
believed  that  a  single  case  justifying  the 
complaint  of  the  poorest  has  occurred. 

"In  some  localities  the  lack  of  school 
accommodations  is  doubtless  the  reason  no 
action  has  been  taken  under  the  law.  While 
such  a  reason  may  be  good  for  a  short  time, 
it  cannot  for  such  wealthy  communities 
as  Providence  and  Pawtucket  be  made  to 
serve  long  as  an  apology  for  not  doing 
what  every  patriotic  and  honorable  senti- 
ment declares  should  be  done  at  once.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  such  communities  will 
speedily  awaken  to  recognize  how  prejudi- 
cial to  the  cause  of  education  is  their  delay. 
Every  day  and  every  month  of  such  neglect 
is  a  wrong  to  the  youth  and  a  danger  to  the 
state." 


206 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 


Indifference  in  Providence. — The  Board  of  Education  com- 
plained of  indifference  in  Providence.  Proposed  amendments 
to  the  law,  which  aimed  to  make  it  more  effective,  were  delayed 
in  the  General  Assembly.  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
called  attention  to  the  failure  to  improve  after  the  momentum 
of  first  enthusiasm  had  spent  itself,  and  the  weakness  of  the 
law  was  disclosed.  The  early  gains  were  clearly  due  more  to 
voluntary  compliance  with  the  spirit  of  the  law,  than  to  any 
attempt  to  enforce  the  letter  of  it.  The  Commissioner  char- 
acterized inaction  in  Providence,  which  still  ignored  the  law 
altogether,  as  shameful,  besides  lamenting  the  effect  which  the 
bad  example  of  the  city  must  have  upon  the  rest  of  the  state. 
The  General  Assembly,  in  1887,  provided  a  penalty  for  recal- 
citrant municipalities — forfeiture  of  50  per  cent,  of  their  shares 
of  the  state  school  money.  Enrollment  improved  thereafter, 
the  figures  for  five  years  being: 


1888. 

1889. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

In  public  schools  

42,547 

43,098 

43,163 

44,090 

45,777 

In  parochial  schools  

7,223 

7,974 

8,275 

8,663 

9,280 

In  select  (private)  schools  

1,663 

1,777 

1,478 

1,440 

1,389 

Totals  

51,433 

52.849 

52,916 

54,193 

56,446 

The  gain  in  total  enrollment  was  almost  10  per  cent,  in  five 
years.  Select  schools  had  lost  ground.  The  percentage  of 
gain  in  enrollment  at  parochial  schools  was  almost  four  tunes 
that  in  public  schools,  but  in  proportion  of  enrollment  to  total 
enrollment  the  two  systems  had  made  nearly  equal  gains. 
Commissioner  Stockwell  reported  in  1892,  that  Rhode  Island  led 
all  other  northern  states  in  improved  public  school  enrollment. 

Advance  Still  Desired. — The  Board  of  Education  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  were  not  yet  satisfied  with  the 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS. 

law.  Three  significant  changes  were  desired:  (1)  Extension 
of  the  period  of  required  attendance  from  12  weeks  to  20  weeks, 
(2)  a  transfer  of  the  power  to  appoint  and  to  control  truant 
officers  from  town  councils  to  school  authorities,  and  (3)  effec- 
tive supervision  of  parochial  and  private  schools,  particularly 
with  reference  to  attendance.  Both  Board  and  Commissioner 
urged  20  weeks  of  required  attendance  in  more  than  one  annual 
report.  In  1893  the  General  Assembly  extended  the  require- 
ment to  16  weeks,  or  80  full  school  days,  and  regular  attendance 
at  all  school  session  unless  the  child  was  regularly  employed  at 
home  or  elsewhere.  The  Board  of  Education  at  first  advocated 
the  appointment  of  truant  officers  by  the  Board ;  in  1890  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  recommended  that  school 
committees  be  given  the  power  to  appoint  truant  officers,  but 
this  reform  was  not  accomplished  until  1901. 

As  previously  noted,  school  committees  lost  the  right  to  visit 
and  inspect  parochial  schools  with  the  abolition  of  tax  exemp- 
tion, and  partly  regained  it  when  the  truancy  law  permitted 
"approval"  of  other  than  public  schools.  One-sixth  of  the 
school  children  in  the  state  were  enrolled  in  parochial  schools  in 
the  period  about  1890.  The  Board  of  Education  recommended, 
in  1884,  that  private  and  parochial  schools  "  should  in  some  way 
and  by  some  legislation  be  brought  under  a  system  of  super- 
vision similar  to  that  of  the  public  schools.  Such  schools  ought 
to  be  required  to  keep  prescribed  registers  and  make  returns 
to  the  Board  of  Education  as  to  the  number  of  teachers,  number 
and  age  of  pupils,  hours  of  instruction,  courses  of  study  and 
other  means  of  doing  the  work  of  education."  "  It  is  not  be- 
lieved," the  Board  continued,  "that  any  opposition  need  be 
met  with  in  the  enforcement  of  a  law  that  will  secure  full  and 
accurate  statistics.  Many  parochial  and  private  schools 
voluntarily  keep  registers  similar  to  those  prescribed  for  the 
public  schools,  and  make  returns  to  the  school  committees  of 
their  respective  towns.  Such  a  course  of  action  is  equally 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

commendable  and  honorable."  In  1889  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools  advocated  the  supplying  of  school  registers  for 
private  schools,  and  that  reports  be  required.  By  law  enacted 
in  1892,  all  private  schools  were  required  to  register  at  the 
office  of  the  Board  of  Education,  "such  registry  showing  loca- 
tion, name,  officers  and  persons  in  charge,  grade  of  instruction 
and  common  language  used  in  teaching,"  and  to  report  annually 
to  the  Board  of  Education,  showing  the  number  of  different 
pupils  enrolled,  the  average  attendance,  and  the  number  of 
teachers  employed.  The  Board  of  Education  was  ordered  to 
furnish  school  registers  and  blanks  for  reports.  The  Board 
reported  that  62  of  75  schools  to  which  requests  for  information 
were  sent  had  reported,  but  that  13  ignored  the  communications 
from  the  Board.  In  1893  school  committees  were  given  per- 
mission to  approve  private  schools  "only  when  the  teaching  is 
in  the  English  language,  and  when  they  are  satisfied  that  such 
teaching  is  thorough  and  efficient,  and  when  the  persons  in 
charge  of  said  school  shall  keep  the  record  of  attendance  of  the 
pupils  thereof  upon  the  blanks  provided  by  the  state  for  such 
purposes,  and  shall  render  to  the  school  committee  of  the  town 
or  city  where  said  school  is  located  a  detailed  report  of  the 
attendance  of  any  pupil  for  any  specified  time,  provided  that 
the  request  for  such  report  is  made  in  writing  and  sets  forth 
that  such  pupil  is  suspected  of  irregular  attendance  or  truancy." 
Public  school  officers  regained  the  right  to  visit  and  inspect 
private  and  parochial  schools  with  the  restoration  of  tax 
exemption. 

Towns  failing  to  comply  with  the  school  census  law  forfeited 
state  school  money  after  1886.  The  range  of  forbidden  em- 
ployment was  extended  in  1893  to  include  manufacturing, 
mechanical  and  mercantile  establishments,  and  telegraph  and 
telephone  companies,  and  the  minimum  employment  age  was 
raised  to  12  years  in  1894. 


PUBLIC   SCHOOLS   TO    FREE   SCHOOLS.  209 

The  statutory  provisions  for  compulsory  school  attendance 
in  1894  (1)  required  the  taking  of  an  annual  school  census,  (2) 
required  the  keeping  of  attendance  records  and  the  making  of 
reports  by  public  and  private  schools,  (3)  required  parents  to 
send  children  7  to  15  years  of  age  to  day  school  80  full  school 
days  per  year,  or  the  full  school  teim  when  the  children  were 
not  regularly  employed,  (4)  made  the  child  also  responsible 
for  attendance  at  school,  (5)  forbade  the  employment  of  (a) 
children  under  12  years  of  age,  (b)  children  between  12  and  15 
years  of  age  without  certificates  of  school  attendance  or  of 
completion  of  the  elementary  school  branches,  hi  manufactur- 
ing, mechanical  or  mercantile  establishments,  and  telegraph  or 
telephone  companies,  (6)  required  (a)  town  councils  to  appoint 
truant  officers  and  (b)  the  Governor  to  appoint  factory  in- 
spectors, and  (7)  provided  penalties.  The  law  was  reasonably 
effective,  though,  of  course,  not  perfect.  The  next  important 
advance  was  made  in  1902. 

OTHER  ADVANCES. 

The  District  System. — Commissioner  Stockwell  was  a  persis- 
tent advocate  of  the  abolition  of  school  districts  and  centraliza- 
tion of  school  management  in  the  hands  of  school  committees. 
The  district  system  never  had  been  established  in  Providence, 
Newport,  Bristol  and  Warren.  Commissioner  Bicknell,  in 
1871,  reported  a  list  of  nine  towns  in  which  school  committees 
had  substantial  control,  including  the  four  mentioned,  and 
Pawtucket,  Woonsocket,  East  Providence,  Barrington  and 
North  Providence,  but  the  district  system  had  not  been  abol- 
ished completely  in  all  these  towns.  Commissioner  Stockwell 
was  the  first  Commissioner  who  realized  and  noted  in  his 
reports  that  towns  were  actually  without  power  to  abolish 
districts,  once  the  district  system  was  adopted.  In  1875  he 
recommended  that  districts  be  abolished  by  state  law,  or  that 
towns  be  given  permission  to  abolish  districts,  and  in  almost 


210  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

every  report  thereafter  he  returned  to  this  recommendation. 
The  Board  of  Education  was  of  the  same  faith.  In  1878  the 
Commissioner  pointed  out  the  inadequacy  of  the  law  to  compel 
districts  to  keep  schools,  and  suggested  that  a  penalty  should 
be  attached  to  failure  to  keep  school.  The  districts  were 
strongly  entrenched,  however.  The  first  important  break 
occurred  in  1883,  when  Woonsocket  applied  to  the  General 
Assembly  for  legislation  to  enable  it  to  abolish  school  districts 
and  a  special  act  was  passed.  Barrington  followed  Woonsocket, 
and  Johnston  was  the  third  town  in  two  years  to  present 
a  request  for  an  enabling  act.  In  1884  the  General  Assembly 
enacted  a  general  law,  which  permitted  towns  to  abolish  dis- 
tricts and  provided  for  an  adjustment  of  school  property 
interests.  The  act  of  1884  increasing  the  state  school  appro- 
priation to  $120,000  made  the  school,  instead  of  the  school 
district,  the  basis  of  apportionment,  thus  removing  one  incen- 
tive for  increasing  the  number  of  school  districts.  An  im- 
portant advance  had  been  made,  but  the  victory  was  incomplete. 
The  Board  of  Education,  in  1886,  recommended  the  abolition 
of  all  school  districts,  and  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  state 
supervision,  making  the  Board  of  Education  a  superior  school 
committee,  and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  a  chief 
state  superintendent  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name.  The  Supreme 
Court  having  decided  in  1891  (Comstock  vs.  School  Com- 
mittee, 17  R.  I.  827),  that  the  vote  to  abolish  districts  under  the 
act  of  1884  could  be  taken  only  in  town  meeting,  the  General 
Assembly  in  1894  by  statute  permitted  the  vote  to  be  taken  in 
district  meetings.  Final  abolition  occurred  in  1904. 

Efficient  Supervision. — The  need  of  efficient  supervision  of 
schools  appealed  to  Commissioner  Stockwell.  The  law  of  1871 
requiring  school  committees  to  appoint  where  towns  failed  to 
elect  superintendents  was  mandatory  in  form,  but  Mr.  Stockwell 
found  the  mandatory  law  not  fully  effective  without  a  provision 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE    SCHOOLS.  211 

for  the  payment  of  adequate  salaries.  Unless  a  reasonable 
standard  salary  or  a  minimum  salary  were  established,  and 
while  towns  might  designate  merely  a  nominal  compensation 
for  the  superintendent,  it  was  unlikely  that  the  supervision 
would  be  expert  or  fairly  competent,  or  superior  in  value  to 
the  price  paid  for  it.  In  1878  the  Commissioner  reported  a 
deplorable  tendency  among  the  towns  to  cut  down  the  salaries 
of  superintendents,  under  the  pretence  of  economy.  He  advo- 
cated at  various  times  (1)  permissive  unions  of  small  towns  and 
the  establishment  of  joint  superin tendencies,  (2)  a  standard 
salary  law  with  state  asumption  of  one-half  the  cost  of  super- 
vision. Both  these  recommendations  were  renewed  and 
adopted  years  after  their  first  suggestion.  The  Board  of 
Education  was  equally  insistent  upon  the  need  of  competent 
supervision.  In  1881  it  recommended  an  annual  appropria- 
tion of  $10,000,  to  be  apportioned  to  aid  towns  in  paying  ade- 
quate salaries  and  securing  better  supervision;  and  in  1884, 
with  the  proposed  increase  of  the  general  state  appropriation 
to  $120,000,  that  "the  payment  year  by  year  to  any  town  of  its 
share  of  the  additional  appropriation  be  made  conditional  upon 
•the  town's  adopting  an  efficient  system  of  paid  supervision." 
In  1886  supervision  by  district  superintendents  paid  by  the 
state  was  recommended.  None  of  these  recommendations  was 
adopted.  In  1884  school  committees  were  given  exclusive 
power  to  appoint  superintendents,  the  town  right  to  elect  being 
taken  away,  but  the  town  retained  control  of  the  situation 
through  its  power  to  determine  the  superintendent's  salary. 
In  1902  the  school  committee  was  given  power  to  fix  the  salary; 
in  1903  joint  superintendencies  were  permitted,  the  state  paying 
half  the  joint  salary  up  to  $1500,  and  in  1904  the  state  assumed 
the  payment  of  $750  toward  the  salary  of  any  superintendent 
receiving  not  less  than  $1500  annually.  In  1908  superin- 
tendents were  required  to  hold  certificates  of  qualification 
issued  by  the  Board  of  Education. 


212  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

School  Apparatus. — Henry  Barnard  had  reported  a  want  of 
maps,  charts,  blackboards  and  other  apparatus  in  schools. 
Commissioner  Allyn  had  recommended  that  the  state  under- 
take some  part  of  the  cost  of  supplying  dictionaries,  books  of 
reference,  maps  and  charts  for  schools.  Commissioner  Stock- 
well  and  the  Board  of  Education  in  1879  renewed  this  recom- 
mendation, and  the  General  Assembly  in  1880  provided  an 
annual  appropriation,  to  be  distributed  to  towns  equipping 
schools  with  dictionaries,  encyclopaedias  and  other  works  of 
reference,  maps,  globes  and  other  apparatus.  Under  the  law 
the  state  reimburses  the  town  for  half  its  expenditure  for  the 
purpose  annually,  up  to  $10  per  school  and  $200  per  town. 
To  give  the  law  its  best  and  most  complete  effect  the  Com- 
missioner made  arrangements  with  jobbers  to  supply  books 
and  apparatus  of  the  kind  intended  at  prices  based  on  large 
sales.  Reviewing  the  operation  of  the  law  in  1884,  the  Com- 
missioner said:  "All  but  two  towns  have  availed  themselves 
of  its  provisions  more  or  less  fully.  In  most  of  the  towns, 
either  all,  or  nearly  all,  of  the  schools  have  been  supplied  with 
utensils  for  teaching.  .  .  .  The  universal  testimony  of 
teachers  and  pupils  is  to  the  incalculable  aid  afforded  by  these 
_  helps,  and  there  is  no  question  as  to  the  value  of  the  enactment. 
The  simple  fact  that  250  quarto  dictionaries  have  been  placed 
in  the  schools  of  the  state  during  these  four  years  is  suggestive 
of  a  wonderful  quickening  of  mental  activity,  of  a  wide  diffusion 
of  knowledge.  When  to  these  are  added  all  of  the  books  of 
reference  and  general  literature,  all  of  the  globes,  maps  and  the 
countless  other  forms  of  illustrative  material,  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  conceive  of  the  stimulus  imparted  to  the  schools." 
The  law  of  1880  is  significant  beyond  its  purpose  of  providing 
important  accessories  to  effective  instruction.  The  law  of  1839 
limiting  the  use  of  state  school  money  to  payment  for  instruc- 
tion, and  the  law  of  1845  designating  the  state  school  money  as 
teachers'  money,  perhaps  established  the  principle  of  state  aid 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   TO    FREE   SCHOOLS.  213 

for  specific  school  purposes;  but  it  is  more  certain  that  both 
these  acts  aimed  at  a  distribution  of  the  burden  of  school 
support  by  a  tripartite  division  of  responsibility.  This  was 
made  clear  in  Henry  Barnard's  explanation  that  the  town  or 
district  should  furnish  the  schoolhouse,  the  state  should  pay 
part  of  the  cost  of  instruction,  and  the  parent,  by  rate  bill, 
might  pay  the  balance.  That  was  the  system  he  found  in 
Rhode  Island.  Tripartite  responsibility  was  terminated  by 
the  abolition  of  rate  bills,  though  the  state  still  designated  its 
appropriation  as  teachers'  money.  The  law  of  1880  singled 
out  a  very  specific  way  of  improving  schools.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  law  of  1884  increasing  the  annual  appropriation  of 
teachers'  money,  every  fresh  provision  for  state  support  since 
1880  has  been  directed  in  similar  fashion  to  a  specific  purpose. 
The  act  of  1880  marked  the  beginning  of  a  change  in  the  state's 
school  financial  policy  from  general  aid  to  aid  for  specific  pur- 
poses and  in  particular  instances. 

Miscellaneous  Advances. — The  General  Assembly,  upon  the 
recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Education  and  the  Governor, 
increased  the  annual  school  appropriation  to  $120,000  in 
1884-5,  and  provided  for  its  apportionment  partly  by  schools 
and  partly  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  children  from  5  to  15 
years  of  age.  By  act  of  1888  school  committees  were  required 
to  divide  state  school  money  and  one-quarter  of  the  town's 
school  appropiiation  equally  among  school  districts,  and  the 
balance  of  the  town  appropriation,  and  poll  and  dog  taxes, 
one-half  on  the  basis  of  average  daily  attendance  and  one-half 
at  discretion,  provided  that  no  district  received  less  than  $180. 
The  provision  for  distribution  within  the  towns  disappeared 
with  the  abolition  of  districts.  The  general  appropriation 
remains  unchanged  from  1884-5. 

The  procedure  for  condemnation  of  property  for  school 
purposes  was  amended  in  1887. 


214  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

The  state  made  its  first  appropriation  for  the  special  education 
of  the  deaf,  dumb  and  blind  in  1845,  and  six  years  later  extended 
'the  work  to  include  idiots  and  imbeciles.  A  day  school  for  the 
deaf  was  opened  in  Providence  in  1877  for  instruction  by  the 
modern  or  lip-reading  method.  The  city  of  Providence  fur- 
nished a  schoolroom,  and  the  state  paid  tuition  for  its  bene- 
ficiaries. In  1882  the  school  was  reorganized  as  a  state  insti- 
tution, and  in  1892  it  became  a  boarding  as  well  as  a  day  school. 
The  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  incorporated  in  1877, 
became  a  state  beneficiary  in  1882 ;  in  1883  the  state  made  pro- 
vision for  free  scholarships  at  "the  School  of  Design.  The 
State  Home  and  School  for  indigent  children  was  opened  in 
1885.  The  money  that  Rhode  Island  received  from  the 
United  States  under  the  Hatch  bill,  for  an  agricultural  experi- 
ment station,  was  used  as  a  beginning  .for  a  school  of  agriculture 
at  Kingston  in  1888;  in  1892  the  school  was  reorganized  as  the 
Rhode  Island  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts.  The 
trustees  of  all  schools  and  educational  institutions  supported 
wholly  or  in  part  by  the  state,  whether  entirely  devoted  to 
education  or  only  partly  so,  were  required  in  1892  to  report 
annually  to  the  State  Board  of  Education,  the  number  of  pupils 
and  instructors,  courses  of  study,  cost  of  maintenance  and 
general  needs  of  the  school  or  institution.  The  board  thus  be- 
came the  central  organization  for  all  public  school  activity 
in  Rhode  Island.  The  story  of  the  development  of  the  institu- 
tions named  and  the  Normal  School  is  reserved  for  the  following 
chapter. 

Rhode  Island  delegates  to  school  committees  the  right  and 
duty  to  prescribe  courses  of  study,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.  Commissioner  Stockwell  pre- 
pared a  graded  course  of  study  in  1878  as  a  model.  It  was  for 
nine  grades,  a  course  since  then  generally  abandoned  for  eight 
grades.  School  committees  were  required  in  1884  to  "make 
provision  for  the  instruction  of  the  pupils  in  all  schools  sup- 


PUBLIC    SCHOOLS    TO    FREE    SCHOOLS.  215 

ported  wholly  or  in  part  by  public  money,  in  physiology  and 
hygiene,  with  special  reference  to  the  effect  of  alcoholic  liquors, 
stimulants  and  narcotics  upon  the  human  system."  This  was 
then  and  was  until  the  physical  education  law  of  1917  the  only 
instance  in  which  the  law  prescribed  specific  subjects  as  part 
of  the  course  of  study. 

The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  authorized,  in  1891, 
to  prepare  an  annual  programme  for  Arbor  Day,  which  had 
become  a  school  holiday  generally  observed  throughout  the 
state.  In  1892  Columbus  Day  was  observed  as  a  school 
holiday,  commemorating  the  400th  anniversary  of  the  discovery 
of  America. 

In  connection  with  the  Rhode  Island  school  exhibit  at  the 
Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia  in  1876,  a  "History  of 
Public  Education  in  Rhode  Island"  was  published  under  the 
direction  of  Commissioner  Stockwell.  In  1893  an  exhibit  was 
prepared  for  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition. 

Commissioner  Stockwell  was  active  in  attempting  to  secure 
uniformity  of  textbooks  throughout  the  state,  and  attained 
some  success  in  this  endeavor.  He  advised  teachers  against  a 
tendency  to  devote  school  hours  to  hearing  recitations,  instead 
of  instructing  their  classes.  He  advocated  better  wages  for 
teachers.  He  was  a  keen  student  of  school  law  and  its  effect, 
and  conscientious  in  his  endeavor  to  enforce  and  secure  enforce- 
ment of  law. 

FREE  TEXTBOOKS— FREE  SCHOOLS. 

The  General  Assembly  made  the  public  schools  of  the  state 
absolutely  free  schools  in  1893  by  requiring  school  committees 
to  furnish  free  textbooks  and  supplies  for  all  pupils  at  the 
expense  of  the  towns.  This  reform,  first  suggested  by  Com- 
missioner Allyn  as  a  way  of  removing  one  obstacle  to  more 
general  school  attendance,  was  acomplished  in  the  year  that 


216  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

he  died.     Free  textbooks  were  recommended  by  Commissioner 
Stockwell  in  1892. 

The  movement  from  public  schools  to  free  schools  had 
covered  half  a  century,  for  the  year  1894  was  the  50th  since 
the  reorganization  of  the  Rhode  Island  school  system  under 
Henry  Barnard.  It  was  also  the  25th  year  of  the  State  Board 
of  Education.  In  1894  there  were  505  public  school  buildings 
in  the  state,  the  estimated  value  of  property  held  for  public  school 
purposes  being  $3,865,000.  The  number  of  "school  buildings 
had  been  312  in  1844,  316  in  1849,  378  in  1854,  446  in  1879,  453 
in  1884,  474  in  1889.  State  appropriations  for  public  school 
support  had  increased  from  $25,000  in  1844  to  $126,747  in  1894; 
town  appropriations  from  $25,500  in  1844  to  $966,594  in  1894. 
With  poll  taxes,  dog  taxes  and  district  taxes,  the  total  amount 
available  for  school  support  in  1894  was  $1,670,010.  The  ex- 
penditures for  public  schools  in  1894  amounted  to  $1,478,840, 
of  which  $420,706  was  for  schoolhouses. 

BRIEF  SUMMARY 

In  this  chapter  and  the  preceding  chapter  the  progress  of 
school  improvement  for  half  a  century  has  been  presented, 
first,  in  relation  to  the  solution  of  six  major  problems  developed 
by  the  Barnard  school  law,  and,  secondly,  in  a  narrative,  partly 
chronological  and  partly  topical.  Perhaps  the  best  review  and 
summary  of  the  entire  movement  is  afforded  by  an  outline  of 
the  school  organization  as  of  1894,  with  indications  of  changes 
and  of  innovations  introduced  after  1845. 

/.    Administration. 

1.  The  General  Assembly,  a  state  school  committee. 

2.  The  Board  of  Education  created  in  1870,  the  Governor 

and  Lieutenant  Governor  representing  the  execu- 
tive and  six  elective  members  the  legislative  depart- 
ment. The  board  elected  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools,  apportioned  aid  to  and  made  rules 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS  217 

and  regulations  for  public  libraries  (1875),  and 
apportioned  aid  to  evening  schools  (1873).  All 
educational  institutions  receiving  state  aid  and  all 
private  schools  reported  to  the  Board  (1892),  as 
did  the  Commissioner.  The  Board  of  Education 
reported  to  the  General  Assembly. 

3.  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  elected  (after 
1871)  by  the  Board  of  Education.  He  was  sec- 
retary of  the  board,  dispenser  of  the  state's  appro- 
priations for  teachers'  money  and  school  apparatus 
(1880).  His  relations  to  the  public  schools  were 
advisory  and  supervisory.  He  heard  and  decided 
appeals  under  the  school  law  (jurisdiction  con- 
firmed 1873).  He  had  charge  of  teachers'  in- 
stitutes 

4  School  committees,  in  charge  of  town  systems,  but 
dividing  authority  under  district  organization  with 
district  trustees.  Town  or  district  system  was 
optional  with  the  town  (1884). 

5.  School  superintendents  (compulsory  1871),  elected  by 

school  committees  (1884);  compensation  fixed  by 
towns. 

6.  Truant  officers,  appointed  by  town  councils  (1883), 

and  factory  inspectors,  appointed  by  Governor 
(1894). 

11.    Support  of  Schools. 

1.  Mandatory  support  by  towns  (1882);   taxation  must 

equal  state  school  money  (1871). 

2.  State  support,  by  general  appropriation  for  teachers' 

salaries,  $120,000  (act  of  1884) ;  by  annual  appro- 
priations for  evening  schools  (1873)  and  school 
apparatus  (1880). 

3.  Poll  taxes  replaced  registry  taxes  in  1888.     Dog  taxes 

(1869). 

4.  Tuition  forbidden  (1868);  free  textbooks  (1893). 
///.     School  Property. 

1.  Land  and  buildings,  provided  by  towns  and  districts, 
located  by  school  committee,  with  power  to  con- 
demn sites  (1859,  1887). 

2  Apparatus  and  reference  books,  supplied  by  town, 
with  state  aid  (1880) 

3.     Textbooks  and  supplies,  free,  furnished  by  towns  (1893) . 


218  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

IV.  School  Teachers. 

1  Provision  for  education  at  state  expense   at   Normal 

School    (1871).     Teachers'   institutes,    state   sup- 
ported. 

2.  Examined  and  certificated  by  Board  of  Trustees  of 

Normal  School  (1871)  or  school  committee. 

3.  Hired  by  trustees  under   district  system,  by  school 

committee  under  town  system. 

V.  School  Pupils. 

1 .     Exclusion  only  by  general  rule ;  no  color  discrimination 
(1866). 

2  Compulsory  attendance  (1883-1894). 

a.  Children  7  to  15  must  attend  80  full  school  days, 
or  the  full  school  term  when  not  regularly  employed. 

b.  Children  under  12,  or  under  15  if  unable  to  write, 
or  under  15  without  certificate  of  schooling,  for- 
bidden employment. 

c.  Enforcement  by  truant   officers  and    factory  in- 

spectors. 

VI.  Educational  Institutions  Other  Than  Public  Schools. 

1.  Rhode  Island  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic 

Arts  (1892). 

2.  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  (1871). 

3.  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design  (1877,  1882). 

4.  Rhode  Island  Institute  for  the  Deaf  (1877,  1882,  1892). 

5.  State  Home  and  School  (1885). 

6.  The  Sockanosset  and  Oaklawn  Schools  (reformatory). 

7.  Free  public  libraries,  receiving  state  aid  (1875). 


CHAPTER  VI. 


EXTENSION  AND  IMPROVEMENT. 


In  previous  chapters  the  history  of  the  public  elementary 
school  system  has  been  traced  to  its  perfection  as  a  universal 
free  public  school  system  through  mandatory  provisions  for  its 
support,  through  the  abolition  of  all  charges  or  taxes  upon 
pupils  and  their  parents,  through  compulsory  attendance  laws, 
and  through  the  introduction  of  free  textbooks  This  chapter 
ventures  backward  somewhat  into  the  period  already  covered 
by  the  chronology  of  previous  chapters,  and  then  carries  for- 
ward the  history  to  1918.  It  deals  with  three  phases  of  Exten- 
sion and  Improvement,  both  before  and  after  1893: 

I.  Extension  of  the  school  system  by  provision  of  educa- 
tional opportunities  for  defective  classes. 

II.  Extension  of  the  school  system  by  provision  of  opportu- 
nities for  public  education  beyond  the  elementary  grades. 

III.  Improvement  of  the  entire  public  school  system  after 
1893. 

I.     EDUCATION  FOR  DEFECTIVE  CLASSES. 

Rhode  Island  provides  maintenance  and  care  for  blind 
children,  institutional  instruction  for  blind,  deaf,  dumb,  iMigent 
and  imbecile  children,  and  instruction  for  the  adult  blind  in 
their  homes. 

The  General  Assembly,  in  1836,  directed  town  clerks  to  report 
the  number,  age,  sex  and  pecuniary  condition  of  deaf  and  dumb 
persons,  and  the  extent  of  their  education.  At  the  January 


220  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

I*  • 

session  in  1845  an  annual  appropriation  of  $1500  was  provided 
"for  the  education  at  the  American  Asylum  at  Hartford  for  the 
instruction  of  the  deaf  and  dumb,  of  the  indigent  deaf-mutes 
of  the  state,  and  for  the  education  of  the  indigent  blind  of  this 
state  at  the  institution  for  the  education  of  the  blind  located  at 
South  Boston."  Byron  Diman  was  appointed  a  commissioner 
for  the  distribution  of  the  appropriation,  the  expenditure  of 
which  was  limited  to  $100  a  year  and  to  five  years  for  each  bene- 
ficiary. In  1851  the  appropriation  was  made  $2500,  and  its 
distribution  was  entrusted  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  while  $15CO  was  appropriated  to  be  distributed  by  the 
Governor  for  the  education  of  imbeciles  and  idiots.  The  power 
of  naming  beneficiaries '  passed  ultimately  to  the  Governor, 
and  in  1893  "the  duty  and  responsibility  of  supervising  the 
education  of  all  such  beneficiaries"  were  vested  in  the  Board  of 
Education. 

Rhode  Island  Institute  for  the  Deaf. — In  1877  a  day  school  for 
the  instruction  of  deaf-mutes  by  the  modern  lip-reading  method 
was  opened  in  Providence.  The  city  furnished  a  schoolroom, 
and  the  Governor  appointed  five  beneficiaries  of  the  state 
appropriation  for  the  education  of  the  deaf  as  state  scholars. 
The  number  of  pupils  grew  gradually.  In  1882  the  school  was 
reorganized  as  a  state  institution.  Ten  years  later  a  perma- 
nent home  for  the  school  was  built  on  Hope  street  in  Providence, 
and  it  was  reorganized  as  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  for  the 
Deaf,  and  placed  under  control  of  a  board  of  trustees.  In  1896 
attendance  was  made  compulsory  for  children  between  the  ages 
of  7  and  18  years  whose  "hearing  or  speech,  or  both,  are  so 
defective  as  to  make  it  inexpedient  or  impracticable  to  attend 
the  public  schools  to  advantage,  not  being  mentally  or  other- 
wise incapable."  Children  3  to  20  years  of  age  are  received 
at  the  school,  the  primary  object  of  which  is  "to  furnish  to  the 
deaf  children  of  the  state  oral  instruction  and  the  best  known 
facilities  for  the  enjoyment  of  such  a  share  of  the  benefits  of  the 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  221 

system  of  free  public  education  as  their  afflicted  condition  will 
admit  of."     The  school  is  free  for  legal  residents  of  the  state. 

Exeter  School. — The  General  Assembly,  in  1907,  made  pro- 
vision for  the  establishment  of  a  home  and  school  for  the  feeble- 
minded, under  the  management  and  control  of  the  State  Board 
of  Education.  The  institution  is  located  at  Exeter.  It  pro- 
vides instruction  and  education  for  feeble-minded  persons  who 
are  within  school  age  or  who  are  capable  of  being  benefited  by 
school  instruction,  and  custodial  care  for  feeble-minded  persons 
beyond  school  age  or  who  are  not  capable  of  being  benefited  by 
school  instruction.  The  school  is  for  idiots  and  imbeciles;  its 
work  should  not  be  confused  with  that  done  for  backward 
children  in  public  elementary  schools.  In  1916  the  name  of 
the  institution  was  changed  from  Rhode  Island  School  for  the 
Feeble-Minded  to  Exeter  School.  In  1917  the  State  Board 
of  Education,  on  its  own  suggestion,  was  relieved  of  respon- 
sibility for  the  further  care  and  management  of  the  Exeter 
School,  and  the  institution  was  entrusted  to  the  newlv  created 
Penal  and  Charitable  Commission. 

Education  for  the  Blind. — The  Governor,  on  recommendation 
by  the  Board  of  Education,  may  appoint  deaf,  imbecile  or 
blind  children  as  state  beneficiaries  at  any  suitable  institution 
within  or  without  the  state.  The  Board  of  Education  super- 
vises the  education  of  such  appointees,  and  may  spend  in  the 
purchase  of  clothing  "a  sum  not  exceeding  $20  in  any  calendar 
year  for  a  single  child."  Since  1908  the  Board  of  Education  has 
been  empowered  to  provide  for  the  education  of  adult  blind 
residents  of  the  state  at  their  homes,  employing  two  visiting 
teachers.  The  Board  may  also  provide  for  the  care  and  main- 
tenance of  children  born  blind  or  becoming  blind. 

State  Home  and  School  for  Children. — After  repeated  recom- 
mendations by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and  the 
Board  of  Education,  that  the  state  should  provide  an  industrial 


222  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

school,  the  State  Home  and  School  for  indigent  children  was 
authorized  in  1883,  and  opened  on  Smith  street  in  Providence, 
in  1885.  The  institution  was  managed  by  a  board  of  control 
until  1917,  when  its  care  and  management  were  entrusted  to 
the  Penal  and  Charitable  Commission.  The  school  receives 
such  children  as  are  declared  vagrant,  neglected  and  dependent 
on  the  public  for  support,  over  4  and  under  14  years  of  age, 
who  are  in  suitable  condition  of  mind  and  body  to  be  instructed. 
Children  under  4  may  be  admitted  for  exceptional  reasons,  and 
children  once  admitted  may  remain  in  the  institution  until  they 
are  18  years  old,  unless  otherwise  ordered  by  the  board.  Chil- 
dren of  unsound  mind  are  excluded.  The  object  of  the  school 
is  to  "provide  for  neglected  and  dependent  children,  not  rec- 
ognized as  vicious  or  criminal,  such  influences  as  will  lead 
toward  an  honest,  intelligent  and  self-supporting  manhood  and 
womanhood,  the  state  so  far  as  possible  holding  to  them  the 
parental  relation."  The  board  has  power  to  place  the  children 
in  good  families,  which  undertake  to  care  for  them  and  to 
provide  for  their  education  in  public  schools. 

Sockanosset  School  for  Boys  is  an  institution  "  for  the  confine- 
ment, instruction  and  reformation  of  juvenile  offenders  and  of 
young  persons  of  idle,  vicious  or  vagrant  habits,"  as  described 
by  the  statutes,  but  the  late  superintendent  declared  that  it 
"  is  an  institution  for  the  moral  uplift  of  the  unfortunate  boy 
who  has  been  brought  here  through  conditions  for  which  he  is 
not  always  responsible.  Prominent  among  these  might  be 
neglect  of  proper  guidance  by  those  who  should  have  been 
responsible  for  his  upbringing,  by  virtue  of  which  the  lad  is  the 
real  sufferer,  and  these  conditions  should  be  considered  by 
those  who  have  him  in  charge.  The  real  object  of  this  insti- 
tution, therefore,  is  to  reclaim  these  lads  and  endeavor  to  make 
of  them  law-abiding  and  useful  citizens  by  educating  them 
along  lines  that  would  lead  them  into  useful  pursuits,  and  de- 
veloping those  talents  which  it  may  be  found  they  possess." 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  223 

The  Sockanosset  School  was  opened  in  1850  in  connection  with 
the  Providence  Reform  School;  it  was  removed  to  Howard  in 
1882.  Previously  under  control  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
and  Corrections,  the  institution  in  1917  was  committed  to  the 
care  of  the  Penal  and  Charitable  Commission.  Under  Super- 
intendent Gardner*  marked  attention  has  been  given  to  the 
improvement  of  school  education  and  the  teaching  of  skilled 
trades.  A  building  formerly  used  as  a  dormitory  has  been 
remodelled  as  a  school  building.  The  boys  are  organized  in 
graded  classes,  but  special  attention  is  given  to  boys  needing 
individual  instruction.  The  boys  have  constructed  a  vocational 
trade  building  of  reinforced  concrete,  which  houses  eight  shops, 
in  which  the  boys  are  taught  as  many  trades  while  producing 
articles  used  at  the  school  and  in  other  state  institutions.  The 
estimated  value  of  the  building  is  $46,000;  the  boy  labor  em- 
ployed saved  the  state  half  that  amount.  The  building  is  an 
enduring  monument  to  boy  labor  well  employed. 

Oaklawn  School  for  Girls  was  established  in  1850  in  connection 
with  the  Providence  Reform  School.  It  was  removed  to 
Howard  in  1882.  Its  purpose  is  corrective.  It  provides  care 
and  education  for  female  juvenile  effenders.  A  cottage  plan 
is  in  operation  for  the  segregation  of  girls  into  classes  according 
to  the  natuie  of  their  offences.  The  small  number  of  girls  com- 
mitted to  the  Oaklawn  School,  the  comparatively  short  periods 
of  sentences,  and  the  necessity  of  separating  girls  in  cottages, 
prohibit  the  organization  of  graded  classes,  although  schools 
are  conducted,  and  an  earnest  effort  is  made  to  promote  educa- 
tion. Much  the  same  reasons  have  almost  inhibited  the 
organization  of  vocational  classes,  but  all  girls  are  given  careful 
training  in  various  departments  of  domestic  service.  The 
institution  passed  in  1917  from  control  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities  and  Corrections  to  the  care  and  management  of  the 
Penal  and  Charitable  Commission. 

*Retired,  1917. 


224  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

All  institutions  under  the  care,  control  and  management  of 
""the  Penal  and  Charitable  Commission  which  provide  school 
education  for  children  are  required  to  make  annual  reports  to 
the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  may  employ  as  teachers 
only  those  who  hold  certificates  of  qualification  issued  by  the 
State  Board  of  Education.  It  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to  visit  and  inspect  these 
schools  at  any  time,  and  to  make  suggestions  for  improvement. 

II.    HIGHER  EDUCATION. 

Beyond  the  public  elementary  schools,  attendance  at  which 
is  compulsory,  Rhode  Island  provides  opportunities  for  sec- 
ondary education  in  public  high  schools,  which  are  aided  by 
an  annual  appropriation  and  which  towns  are  required  to  main- 
tain by  a  mandatory  statute.  Higher  education  is  provided 
free  for  residents  of  the  state  at  Rhode  Island  State  College. 
Vocational  education  is  free  for  residents  of  Rhode  Island  at 
Rhode  Island  Normal  School  and  in  the  graduate  department 
of  education  at  Brown  University,  for  teachers;  at  the  Rhode 
Island  School  of  Design,  which  maintains  eight  departments  of 
instruction  in  trades  and  industries;  and  at  the  Rhode  Island 
College  of  Pharmacy  and  Allied  Sciences,  for  pharmacists. 
The  state  system  of  free  public  schools  thus  extends  from 
kindergarten  through  college.  At  other  institutions  than  those 
maintained  by  public  agencies  opportunities  for  free  education 
are  provided  through  free  state  scholarships. 

Rhode  Island  State  College. — The  appointment  of  beneficiaries 
to  free  scholarships  at  Brown  University  ceased  in  1892,  when 
the  university  surrendered  to  the  state  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 
of  land  granted  under  the  Morrill  Act  of  1862,  amounting  to 
$50,000.  Rhode  Island,  in  1888,  established  an  experiment 
station  and  school  of  agriculture  at  Kingston,  the  former  to 
receive  the  $15,000  annually  appropriated  by  the  Hatch  Act  of 
1887.  The  school  of  agriculture  was  reorganized  as  the  Rhode 


EXTENSION   AND    IMPROVEMENT.  225 

Island  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts  in  1892,  and 
in  1909  the  name  of  the  institution  was  changed  to  Rhode 
Island  State  College.  The  college  is  supported,  partly  by  the 
United  States  Government  and  partly  by  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  receiving  annually:  The  income  of  the  land  grant 
fund  under  the  Morrill  Act  of  1862,  $2,500;  for  experimental 
purposes,  $15,000  under  the  Hatch  Act  of  1887,  and  $15,000 
under  the  Adams  Act  of  1906;  for  "instruction  in  agriculture, 
the  mechanic  arts,  the  English  language,  and  the  various 
branches  of  mathematical,  physical,  natural  and  economic 
sciences,  with  special  reference  to  their  application  in  the 
industries  of  life,  and  to  the  facilities  for  such  instruction," 
$25,000  under  the  Morrill  Act  of  1890,  and  $25,000  under  the 
Nelson  amendment  of  1907;  $10,000  for  college  extension  in 
co-operation  with  the  Department  of  Agriculture  under  the 
Smith-Lever  bill,  a  total  of  $92,500  annually,  directly  or  as  the 
income  of  funds  provided  by  Congress;  and  $40,000  for  sup- 
port and  maintenance  from  the  state  treasury.  The  college 
buildings  and  equipment  have  been  provided  by  the  state, 
representing  an  investment  exceeding  $450,000. 

The  growth  of  the  college  was  not  rapid  in  its  earlier  years; 
its  functions  were  not  clearly  understood  by  the  people  gen- 
erally, and  it  was  not  distinctly  a  popular  institution.  The 
enthusiasm  of  leaders  in  the  movement  for  extension  of  the  col- 
lege was  offset  and  counteracted  somewhat  by  distrust,  dissatis- 
faction with  the  cost  of  maintenance  and  improvement  without 
realization  of  the  ideal  developing,  and  almost  irreconcilable  op- 
position by  alumni  and  friends  of  Brown  University,  who  feared 
the  growth  of  a  rival  institution  of  collegiate  rank  within  the 
borders  of  the  state.  Most  of  the  reaction  has  spent  itself; 
coldness  and  apathy  are  giving  way  to  pride  in  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  college,  and  appreciation  of  the  fundamental  ideal 
propounded  by  Senator  Morrill:  "To  offer  an  opportunity  in 
every  state  for  a  liberal  and  larger  education  to  large  numbers, 


226  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

not  merely  those  destined  to  sedentary  professions,  but  to  those 
much  needing  higher  instruction  for  the  world's  business,  for 
v  industrial  pursuits  and  professions  of  life  ...  to  give  a 
chance  to  the  industrial  classes  of  the  country  to  obtain  a  liberal 
education." 

The  General  Assembly  in  1908  appointed  a  commission  of 
inquiry  for  special  examination  of  the  college,  with  instructions 
"to  visit  the  Rhode  Island  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic 
Arts,  make  a  study  of  its  aims,  plans  and  work,  determine  its 
educational  value  to  the  state,  consider  ways  and  means  by 
which  its  service  to  the  state  may  be  enhanced,  and  report 
thereon,  with  such  other  suggestions  as  they  may  deem  proper." 
The  commissioners'  report,  presented  to  the  General  Assembly 
in  1909,  reviewed  the  legislation  of  Congress  under  which  the 
land-grant  colleges  were  established  and  fostered,  the  history 
of  land-grant  colleges  generally,  and  of  the  Rhode  Island  college 
in  particular.  While  emphasizing  the  state's  "solemn  compact 
with  the  United  States  Government"  to  maintain  a  college, 
set  forth  in  the  General  Assembly's  resolution  in  1863,  accepting 
the  Morrill  grant,  "that  the  faith  of  the  state  be  and  hereby  is 
pledged  to  the  United  States  that,  upon  receipt  of  the  scrip  pro- 
vided to  be  issued  under  the  said  act  of  Congress,  it  will  apply 
the  proceeds  thereof  to  the  objects  and  in  the  manner  prescribed 
by  this  act,"  the  commission  replied  with  facts  to  criticisms  of 
the  college  which  had  occasioned  the  inquiry.  The  commission 
unanimously  advocated  the  continuance  of  the  college  and  its 
extension  on  the  lines  already  laid  down. 

The  college  offers  four-year  courses  in  agriculture,  mechanical, 
electrical,  chemical,  and  civil  engineering,  a  teachers'  four- 
year  course  in  applied  science,  and  a  four-year  course  in  home 
economics;  and  two-year  courses  in  agriculture  and  domestic 
science.  Extension  courses  in  agriculture  and  engineering  are 
provided,  and  the  work  by  the  experiment  station  is  closely 
correlated  with  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  state.  The 


EXTENSION    AND    IMPROVEMENT.  227 

total  enrollment  of  students  at  the  college  exceeds  250,  of  whom 
225  are  taking  four-year  courses  leading  to  collegiate  degrees. 
The  college  is  governed  by  a  board  of  seven  members,  consisting 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  one  member  appointed 
by  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  and  five  appointed  by  the 
Governor. 

"  Our  state  system  of  public  education  is  no  longer  a  system 
of  schools  alone,  but  one  of  school  and  college,"  says  Commis- 
sioner Ranger.  "We  need  to  remember  that  this  institution 
(the  college)  is  a  vital  factor  of  the  state  government  in  its 
entire  educational  enterprise;  that  it  is  the  public's  college  and 
that  it  serves  the  public's  youth,  as  the  elementary  school  cares 
for  the  public's  children.  .  .  .  The  Rhode  Island  State 
College  clearly  exemplifies  free  public  education  administered 
by  the  state  government.  ...  As  the  opportunities  of 
high  school  education,  following  free  elementary  school  instruc- 
tion, were  made  free  by  the  state  government  to  every  boy  and 
girl,  so  in  the  founding  of  the  Rhode  Island  State  College  free 
collegiate  education  was  offered  to  every  youth,  making  another 
advance  in  free  public  education.  With  all  its  strength  and 
power  of  the  past,  the  college  has  hardly  passed  its  formative 
period;  and  it  yet  awaits  a  higher  recognition  of  its  worth,  a 
truer  appreciation  of  its  aims  and  service,  a  deeper  sense  of 
public  responsibility  for  its  needs,  and  that  generous  support 
of  the  people  which  in  good  time  will  enhance  its  value  fourfold 
to  the  state  and  make  it  a  fitting  consummation  of  the  system 
of  free  public  education."* 

When  war  was  declared  against  Germany  in  April,  1917,  the 
Rhode  Island  State  College  Cadet  Battalion  was  the  only  com- 
pletely trained  and  equipped  body  of  troops  on  which  the 
Governor  could  call  for  immediate  service.  The  alumni  of  the 
college,  and  the  students  in  upper  classes,  enlisted  in  large 
numbers  in  various  governmental  services.  The  alumni  of 

*Address  at  R.  I.  College,  Oct.  26,  1912. 


228  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

Rhode  Island  State  College  have  made  an  enviable  reputation 
for  the  college  in  various  walks  of  life,  amply  justifying  the 
great  faith  that  Senator  Morrill  voiced  in  advocating  federal 
aid  for  education  of  collegiate  grade  for  the  people  of  all  classes. 

Rhode  Island  Normal  School. — As  a  necessary  adjunct  thereof, 
the  Normal  School  might  be  considered  part  of  the  elementary 
public  school  system.  The  Rhode  Island  Normal  School,  how- 
ever, is  a  splendidly  efficient  institution,  needing  only  slight 
modification  and  extension  of  the  courses  to  four  years  to  make 
it  a  normal  college.  It  is  a  distinctly  high-grade  professional 
school,  with  strict,  selective  entrance  requirements  and  well- 
maintained  standards.  The  present  Normal  School  was  es- 
tablished in  1871,  with  the  Board  of  Education  and  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools  as  a  board  of  trustees  in  charge. 
Ample  provision  for  its  maintenance  was  made  by  the  General 
Assembly,  and  it  was  successful  from  the  beginning.  Although 
there  was  no  rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  students  in  the 
first  20  years,  there  was  a  substantial,  steady  increase.  The 
average  enrollment  was  148  in  the  first  five  years,  152  in  the 
second  five,  and  >  155  in  the  third  five  years  of  the  school's 
existence.  The  enrollment  reached  200  in  1800,  and  was  218 
when  the  present  building  was  occupied  in  1898.  The  enroll- 
ment exceeded  400  in  1917. 

The  Normal  School  was  opened  in  temporary  quarters  in 
Normal  Hall,  on  High  street,  Providence,  and  removed  sub- 
sequently to  the  building  on  Benefit  street  which  had  been  the 
Providence  high  school  and  is  now  the  home  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Rhode  Island.  Model  and  training  schools  in  connnec- 
tion  with  the  Normal  School  were  opened  in  the  schoolhouse  at 
Benefit  and  Halsey  streets  in  Providence,  in  1894.  Four  years 
later  the  Normal  School  removed  to  its  present  building,  which 
was  authorized  by  the  General  Assembly  in  1893.  The  lower 
floor  houses  a  model  and  training  school  of  nine  rooms,  from 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  229 

kindergarten  through  the  recognized  eight  elementary  grades, 
besides  a  model  Montessori  school. 

Under  J.  C.  Greenough,  the  first  Normal  School  principal, 
a  two-year  course  was  established,  with  special  provision  for 
advanced  standing  and  completion  of  the  work  in  one  year  by 
well-prepared  students.  No  little  difficulty  was  experienced  in 
overcoming  inequalities  of  preparation.  Commissioner  Stock- 
well,  who  served  as  acting  principal  after  the  resignation  of  Mr. 
Greenough  until  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Morgan,  analyzed  the 
problem  and  suggested  a  solution.  He  said : 

"The  entire  lack  of  academic  preparation  which  marks  so 
many  of  the  pupils  who  have  never  enjoyed  better  advantages 
than  the  district  school  or  the  village  grammar  school  has 
rendered  necessary  the  most  strenuous  efforts  to  equip  them 
with  the  requisite  knowledge.  But  it  has  been  found  that  the 
time  allotted  to  the  work  is  altogether  too  limited;  and  the 
practical  experience  of  the  past  few  years  has  been  that  for 
such  pupils  at  least  three  years  are  necessary  for  the  proper 
completion  of  the  course. 

"On  the  other  hand,  we  are  constantly  receiving  from  the 
best  high  schools  of  the  state  pupils  who  have  been  well  taught 
and  trained,  whose  knowledge  of  the  various  studies  laid  down 
in  the  course  is  as  a  rule  excellent,  and  who  are  scholarly  in 
their  tastes  and  habits.  Now  it  is  manifestly  neither  just  nor 
wise  to  put  such  pupils  into  the  same  class  of  work  to  which 
you  would  assign  one  to  whom  the  whole  subject  matter  was 
entirely  new.  The  two  elements  are  not  calculated  to  assimi- 
late, nor  can  the  two  derive  equal  benefit  from  the  work  done. 
It  will  be  too  simple  for  the  one  or  too  difficult  for  the  other. 
It  would  seem  as  though  a  double  scheme  should  be  prepared, 
which  shall  provide,  on  the  one  hand,  for  the  giving  of  the 
requisite  instruction  in  the  various  branches  of  learning  to 
those  who  are  destitute  of  this  knowledge,  and  then  to  also 
secure  a  year  of  specific  training  in  the  science  and  art  of  teach- 
ing for  those  who  come  well  equipped  with  the  requisite  knowl- 
edge, but  without  any  idea  of  what  to  do  with  it.  Such  an 
adjustment  will,  I  think,  tend  to  commend  the  school  more 
fully  to  all,  and  lead  many  to  attend  who  otherwise  would  have 
never  thought  it  necessary  or  even  desirable." 

The  organization  of  two  courses,  a  distinctly  professional 
course  and  a  preparatory  course,  as  suggested,  was  undertaken 
by  Dr.  Morgan.  In  1891  the  longer  course  was  extended  to 


230  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

three  and  a  half  years,  and  in  1894  required  observation  in  the 
model  schools  and  practice  in  the  training  schools  extended  the 
course  to  four  years.  The  building  provided  for  a  model  and 
training  school  housed  three  model  schools  and  five  training 
schools.  The  latter  were  taught  by  Normal  School  pupils  under 
the  supervision  of  experienced  critic  teachers.  High  school 
graduates  were  permitted  to  complete  the  professional  work  in 
two  years,  and  a  special  one-term  course  was  provided  for 
appointees  to  teaching  positions  in  the  schools  of  Providence, 
who  completed  preparation  for  teaching  in  city  training  schools. 

The  growth  of  the  Normal  School  has  been  rapid  since  1898. 
More  stringent  entrance  requirements  and  stronger  courses 
have  been  adopted,  the  preparatory  course  has  been  aban- 
doned as  no  longer  necessary,  residents  of  other  states  have 
practically  been  excluded,  but  still  the  number  of  students  tends 
to  increase.  The  course  now  covers  two  and  a  half  years  of 
strictly  professional  training  beyond  the  four  years  of  high 
school  training  required  of  all  candidates  for  admission.  The 
work  includes  six  months  of  practical  training  in  a  public  school- 
room under  the  supervision  of  an  experienced  critic  teacher, 
each  of  whom  trains  two  students.  For  critic  teachers  the  state 
pays  up  to  $400  in  addition  to  the  salary  paid  by  the  town  or 
city  in  which  the  training  school  is  located.  Training  schools 
are  scattered  over  the  state.  Several  towns  require  candidates 
for  teaching  positions  to  undergo  a  further  period  of  practice 
teaching.  For  classes  graduating  in  1920  and  thereafter  the 
course  is  three  years,  including  two  years  of  work  in  the  Normal 
School,  one-half  a  school  year  in  training,  and  one-half  a  school 
year  of  successful  experience  in  a  public  school. 

The  Normal  School,  therefore,  comprises  a  professional  school 
for  teachers,  a  model  and  observation  and  training  schools 
housed  in  the  same  building,  and  a  series  of  63  training  schools. 
It  also  offers  extension  courses  for  teachers,  aiming  to  improve 
professional  standards  and  to  keep  teachers  in  service  close  up 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  231 

with  the  progress  of  educational  science.  In  the  summer  of 
1917  a  summer  school  for  teachers  and  an  institute  for  library 
workers  was  conducted  at  Rhode  Island  Normal  School.  The 
enrollment  of  teachers  for  professional  courses  was  185. 
Through  the  co-operation  of  Rhode  Island  State  College  a  series 
of  lectures  and  demonstrations  in  home  economics  was  presented. 
These  extracts  from  a  recent  report  of  the  Board  .of  Trustees 
present  a  marked  contrast  to  the  extract  from  Commissioner 
Stockwell's  report  printed  above,  and  indicate  the  present-day 
standards  and  aims  of  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School : 

"Though  generally  recognized 'as  one  of  the  most  successful 
normal  schools  in  America,  it  has  by  no  means  reached  the 
limits  of  its  development  or  realized  completely  the  purposes  of 
its  existence.  .  .  .  The  fact  that  its  scholastic  requirements 
for  admission  of  students  are  of  the  same  grade  as  college  en- 
trance requirements  and  that  the  work  of  its  students  is 
accredited  by  colleges  establishes  its  academic  standing  as  of 
collegiate  rank  among  educational  institutions.  .  .  .  How- 
ever gratifying  may  be  the  high  academic  rank  and  educa- 
tional position  of  the  Normal  School,  the  best  measure  of  its 
usefulness  is  the  recent  gain  in  the  relative  number  of  teachers 
of  professional  training  in  our  elementary  public  schools.  .  .  . 
Steadily,  year  by  year,  the  relative  number  of  public  school 
teachers  of  normal  or  professional  training  has  increased  until  it 
is  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  total  number  of  teachers  in 
elementary  or  common  schools.  .  .  .  No  state  has  so 
large  a  per  cent,  of  public  school  teachers  who  have  had  pro- 
fessional training  for  their  work  as  Rhode  Island,  and  we  are 
rapidly  approaching  a  time  when  a  teacher  of  professional  rank 
will  be  available  for  every  school  in  the  state.  .  .  .  The 
chief  duty  of  the  school  is  to  complete  the  task  it  set  out  to  do, 
to  make  available  for  every  elementary  school  in  the  state  a 
professionally  trained  teacher.  When  this  is  done,  or  as  soon 
as  a  sufficient  number  of  students  are  willing  to  extend  their 
term  of  professional  preparation  to  four  years,  the  very  ad- 
vantage to  be  gained  by  public  schools  through  a  better  prepara- 
tion of  teachers  will  justify  the  proposed  advance.  To  employ 
generally  in  the  elementary  schools  of  Rhode  Island  teachers 
of  professional  training  and  collegiate  culture  is  not  only  de- 
sirable but  possible  is  the  not  distant  future." 

The  excellence  of  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  has  won 
it  recognition  within  the  state  and  reputation  beyond  the 


232  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

borders  of  the  state.  "No  state  except  Rhode  Island,"  said  the 
Commissioner  of  Education  of  Massachusetts  recently,  "sur- 
passes Massachusetts  in  facilities  for  the  training  of  elementary 
school  teachers."  This  tribute  belongs  almost  exclusively  to 
Rhode  Island  Normal  School.  In  a  bulletin*  of  the  National 
Bureau  of  Education,  printed  in  1916,  reporting  a  special  study 
of  state  normal  schools,  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  was 
selected  for  special  distinction  and  praise.  In  particular  the 
system  of  training  schools  was  described  as  providing  facilities 
for  preparing  teachers  for  service  unsurpassed  and  unequalled 
elsewhere.  Such  unusual  tribute  to  its  general  excellence  is  well 
deserved  by  this  splendid  institution. 

Rhode  Island  School  of  Design. — The  School  of  Design  was 
chartered  in  1877  as  a  private  institution  "to  furnish  such  in- 
struction in  freehand  and  mechanical  drawing,  painting,  model- 
ling and  designing  as  is  required  by  artisans  generally,  that  they 
may  more  successfully  apply  the  principles  thereof  to  the 
mechanic  arts  and  industries,  and  to  give  such  systematic 
training  to  students  as  shall  enable  them  to  become  successful 
art  teachers,  and  to  promote  the  general  advancement- of  art 
and  culture."  In  1882  the  school  was  made  the  beneficiary 
of  an  annual  appropriation,  under  an  agreement  by  which  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and  two  members  of  the  Board 
of  Education  became  trustees  of  the  school,  and  the  school 
reported  annually  to  the  Board.  Commenting  upon  this  agree- 
ment in  1883,  the  board  of  management  said:  "The  State  of 
Rhode  Island  is  dependent  in  an  unusual  degree  upon  its  manu- 
facturing industries.  The  most  successful  manufacturers  are 
those  who  keep  abreast  of  the  times.  The  most  skilled  work- 
men still  come  to  us  from  abroad.  The  action  of  the  Legisla- 
ture last  year  shows  that  it  sees  no  reason  why  the  inventive 
Yankee  should  not  take  his  place  beside  them."  To  further 

•Bulletin  12, 1916,  Problems  Involved  in  Standardizing  State  Normal  Schools.  Judd  and 
Parker. 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  233 

the  purposes  indicated,  the  state,  in  1883,  inaugurated  an  annual 
appropriation  for  free  scholarships  at  the  School  of  Design, 
beneficiaries  to  be  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Education. 

Since  1883  thousands  of  young  people  and  workers  have 
received  in  the  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  through  state 
free  scholarships,  education  which  has  helped  them  to  improve- 
ment in  trades  and  industries  requiring  skill  and  technical 
knowledge.  The  opportunity  for  education  thus  offered  has 
been  appreciated;  in  every  year  since  1883  the  demand  for 
scholarships  has  exceeded  the  number  which  could  be  appor- 
tioned under  the  annual  appropriation.  The  General  Assembly 
has  been  constrained,  from  time  to  time,  therefore,  to  increase 
its  annual  appropriation  for  scholarships. 

The  Board  of  Education  before  the  opening  of  the  Normal 
School  building  advocated  use  of  the  basement  as  a  textile 
school,  but  subsequently  withdrew  this  recommendation  when 
other  use  was  found  for  the  basement.  The  General  Assembly, 
in  1913,  provided  an  annual  appropriation  of  $5000  for  the 
School  of  Design,  to  be  applied  "exclusively  to  the  general 
uses  and  purposes  of  its  textile  department,"  and  a  further 
appropriation  of  $5000  annually  for  the  same  purpose  when  the 
school  provided  a  special  building  for  its  textile  department. 
The  new  building  was  completed  and  in  use  in  October,  1915. 
The  annual  appropriation  for  maintenance,  scholarships  and 
the  textile  school  was  $23,000  in  1917. 

Brown  University. — In  1895  a  plan  for  co-operation  between 
the  city  of  Providence  and  Brown  University  in  the  training  of 
teachers  for  high  schools  was  adopted.  The  university  had 
already  established  a  department  of  pedagogy  with  Walter  B. 
Jacobs  as  instructor.  The  co-operative  plan  provided  for  an 
extension  of  the  work  of  the  department  in  the  university,  and 
the  appointment  of  two  graduate  students  annually  at  salaries 
of  $400  each  as  student  teachers  in  the  city  high  schools.  The 
work  has  since  then  been  extended  by  the  appointment  of 


234  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

additional  student  teachers  under  salary  and  student  teachers 
on  part  time  without  compensation,  the  city  high  schools 
serving  as  training  and  practice  schools  for  the  university. 
Fall  River  recently  adopted  a  similar  plan  in  co-operation  with 
Brown  University,  and  New  York  city  has  adopted  the  plan. 
The  State  Board  of  Education  was  authorized  in  1912  to 
"provide  in  co-operation  with  Brown  University  suitable  post- 
graduate courses  of  instruction  in  said  university  in  the  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  education,  designed  to  prepare  students 
for  positions  as  superintendents  of  public  schools  and  high 
school  teachers  and  principals."  An  appropriation  of  $5000 
annually  was  provided,  to  be  applied  to  the  purposes  named 
and  to  free  scholarships,  and  the  Board  of  Education  was 
authorized  "to  appoint  persons  of  proper  age,  character  and 
acquirements  who  desire  to  become  teachers,  principals  or 
superintendents  in  the  public  schools  of  this  state  to  state 
scholarships,  which  shall  enable  them  to  pursue  post-graduate 
courses  of  instruction  in  Brown  University."  Under  this 
agreement  a  new  professorship  of  educational  psychology  was 
established,  and  Stephen  S.  Colvin  was  called  from  Illinois 
University  to  the  new  chair  in  Brown.  Under  Professors 
Jacobs  and  Colvin  the  graduate  department  of  education  is 
flourishing.  In  four  years  of  state  support  the  graduate  depart- 
ment of  education  has  become  the  strongest  in  the  university. 
The  number  of  courses  taken  and  the  number  of  students  have 
both  increased  more  than  200  per  cent.  The  increase  has  come 
through  the  students  holding  state  scholarships.  Benefit  to  the 
state  has  come  through  the  improvement  of  the  large  number  of 
prospective  teachers  and  teachers  in  service  who  have  under- 
taken study  in  the  graduate  department  of  education  at  the 
university. 

Rhode  Island  College  of  Pharmacy  and  Allied  Sciences  was 
granted  a  charter  in  1902.  In  1916  the  General  Assembly  pro- 
vided an  annual  appropriation  of  $1000,  to  be  expended  under 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  235 

the  direction  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  for  free  state 
scholarships.  The  Board  is  empowered  to  visit  and  examine 
the  college,  and  the  college  is  required  to  make  an  annual  report 
to  the  Board. 

High  Schools. — The  first  public  high  school  in  Rhode  Island 
was  established  in  Providence  in  1843.  Newport  established  a 
public  high  school  at  the  same  period.  Other  town  high  schools 
followed  in  this  order:  Warren,  1847;  Bristol  and  Woonsocket, 
1849;  Pawtucket,  1862;  Westerly,  Lincoln  and  Hopkinton,  1871 ; 
Barrington  and  East  Providence,  1884;  Johnston,  1885;  New 
Shoreham,  1887  and  1898;  Cranston,  1890;  Burrillville,  1891; 
Cumberland,  1894;  North  Kingstown,  1901;  South  Kingstown, 
1904;  Warwick,  1905.  Lincoln  high  school  became  Central 
Falls  high  school  in  1895.  Johnston  high  school  was  closed 
when  part  of  the  town  was  annexed  to  Providence.  South 
Kingstown  high  school  was  established  in  1880  as  a  private  high 
school.  Warwick  high  school  became  West  Warwick  high 
school  in  1913. 

The  General  Assembly  by  resolution  in  1896  directed  the 
State  Board  of  Education  to  report  measures  for  school  im- 
provement, and  the  State  Board  of  Education  recommended, 
with  other  things,  improved  high  school  facilities.  Twenty- 
two  towns  then  had  no  high  school,  and  these  towns  comprised 
80  per  cent,  of  the  area  of  the  state,  though  their  children  num- 
bered only  20  per  cent,  of  the  school  population.  The  General 
Assembly,  in  1898,  as  part  of  an  act  "to  secure  a  uniform  high 
standard  in  public  schools  of  the  state,"  provided  that  "any 
town  maintaining  a  high  school  having  a  course  of  study  ap- 
proved by  the  State  Board  of  Education,  shall  be  entitled  to 
receive  annually  from  the  state  $20  for  each  pupil  in  average 
attendance  for  the  first  25  pupils,  and  $15  for  each  pupil  in 
average  attendance  for  the  second  25  pupils,  and  that  any  town 
not  maintaining  a  high  school,  which  shall  make  provision  for 
free  attendance  of  its  children  at  some  high  school  or  academy 
approved  by  the  State  Board  of  Education,  shall  be  entitled  to 


236  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

receive  aid  on  the  same  basis."  In  1909  the  aid  was  increased 
$5  per  pupil,  and  the  new  law  provided  that  a  town  not  main- 
taining a  high  school  must  make  provision  at  the  expense  of  the 
town  for  free  attendance  of  its  children  at  some  high  school  or 
academy  approved  by  the  Board.  Thus  the  provision  of  a  high 
school  or  high  school  education  was  made  obligatory.  This 
interpretation  of  the  high  school  law  has  recently  been  estab- 
lished by  a  decision  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools, 
which  was  approved  by  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  is, 
therefore,  final  in  fact  and  in  law.  In  the  particular  case  the 
town's  obligation  to  provide  high  school  education  was  not 
denied,  but  it  was  asserted  by  the  town  that  this  obligation  was 
limited  to  four  years  for  each  pupil,  and  was  conditional  upon 
the  pupil's  maintenance  of  class  standing.  The  town  refused 
to  pay  tuition  for  a  boy  who  had  already  attended  high  school 
at  the  town's  expense  for  four  years  without  completing  his 
course,  and  also  for  a  boy  who  was  repeating  the  school  work  for 
a  year  for  which  tuition  had  been  paid  by  the  town.  The 
Commissioner  held  that  the  public  high  school,  as  an  extension  of 
the  public  elementary  school,  is  to  be  governed  by  essentially 
the  same  rules  and  regulations,  practices  and  customs;  that 
no  restrictions  or  conditions  of  the  kind  set  up  by  the  town  had 
prevailed  in  elementary  schools;  that  such  restrictions  and 
conditions  were  inconsistent  with  attendance  laws,  and  con- 
trary to  the  public  policy  which  dictates  always  an  extension 
rather  than  a  restriction  of  public  education.  The  decision 
held  that  the  law  is  mandatory.  Hudson  vs.  Coventry. 

There  were  in  1917  22  high  schools  in  Rhode  Island,  four  in 
Providence  and  one  each  at  Ashaway,  Barrington,  Bristol, 
Burrillville,  Central  Falls, 'Cranston,  Cumberland,  East  Provi- 
dence, Hope  Valley,  Newport,  North  Kingstown,  New  Shore- 
ham,  Pawtucket,  South  Kingstown,  Warren,  Westerly,  West 
Warwick  and  Woonsocket.  At  Little  Compton  a  high  school 
offering  a  two-year  course  was  being  maintained. 


EXTENSION    AND    IMPROVEMENT. 


237 


State  aid  for  high  schools  is  conditional  upon  approval  by  the 
Board  of  Education.  In  1914  the  Board  of  Education  appointed 
Professor  Stephen  S.  Colvin  inspector  of  high  schools,  and  made 
it  his  duty  to  visit  and  examine  all  the  high  schools  of  the  state 
as  often  as  once  a  year,  and  other  secondary  schools  as  occasion 
may  require.  Minimum  requirements*  for  the  approval  of 
standard  high  schools  have  been  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Edu- 


*Minimum  Requirements  for  the  Approval 
of  Standard  High  Schools  in  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island: 

High  schools  in  Rhode  Island  that  meet 
the  following  requirements  shall  be  classed 
as  standard  high  schools  and  may  be 
granted  the  approval  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education,  entitling  them  to  state  aid: 

1.  That  they  shall  be  maintained  at 
least  38  weeks  in  each  school  year. 

2.  That  three  or  more  teachers  shall  be 
employed,  and  that  there  shall  be  at  least 
one  teacher  for  every  30  pupils  enrolled 
in    the    school.     Whenever    possible,    one 
teacher   shall   be   provided   for   every   25 
pupils;  and  in  laboratory  courses  not  more 
than  20  pupils  should  be  assigned  t6  a 
teacher. 

3.  That  a  teacher  shall  not  be  required 
to  instruct  classes  more  than  five  hours  in 
any  school  day.     In  many  cases  a  limit  of 
four  hours  of  class  instruction  is  advisable. 
This  does  not  include  individual  instruction 
and  other  school  duties. 

4.  That  every  teacher  employed  shall 
hold  a  certificate  of  qualifications  granted 
by  or  under  authority  of  the  Scate  Board 
of    Education.     In    the    engagement    of 
teachers  hereafter  the  aim  should  be  to 
employ  college  graduates  who  have  pur- 
sued graduate  courses  in  professional  prep- 
aration for  at  least  one  year. 

5.  That  one  or  more  courses  of  four 
years,  following   an  elementary  course  of 
eight  years,  shall  be  maintained,  offering 
a  minimum  of  15  units  of  study,  a  unit 
meaning  a  single  subject,  or  related  sub- 
jects, pursued  not  less  than  four  periods  a 
week  for  a  school  year  of  not  less  than  38 
weeks;    and  that  each  subject  and  course 
be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education. 

6.  That  adequate  equipment  shall  be 
provided    for   instruction   in   the    courses 
maintained.     Each  high  school  should  have 
a    well-equipped   library   or   study    room, 


supervised  by  a  teacher  or  properly  quali- 
fied librarian,  and  containing  books  needed 
for  reference  and  for  regular  or  supple- 
mentary study  in  the  subjects  and  arts 
taught.  Each  school  should  be  provided 
with  illustrative  material,  such  as  maps, 
charts,  models,  projection  lanterns,  etc. 
Courses  in  physics,  chemistry  and  biology 
should  be  taught  oily  in  connection  with 
properly  equipped  laboratories.  Courses 
in  commerce,  agriculture,  manual,  domestic 
and  industrial  arts  should  be  provided  with 
an  equipment  suited  to  their  needs.  Li- 
brary, laboratory  and  other  equipment  will 
be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education  on  inspection. 

7.  That  proper  standards  of  admission 
shall  be  determined  and  regularly  main- 
tained by  local  management.     For  admis- 
sion to  an  approved  high  school  course  of 
four  years  and  graduation  therefrom,  the 
completion  of  a  regular  elementary  school 
course,   or  equivalent,  shall  be  required. 
A    standard    high   school,    however,    may 
offer  courses  of  less  than  four  years,  to 
which  pupils  of  14,  or  more,  years  of  age 
may  be.  admitted. 

8.  That  efficient  instruction  and  govern- 
ment shall  be  regularly  maintained.     Lax 
government  or  inferior  instruction  will  be 
deemed  sufficient  cause  for  the  revocation 
of  approval. 

9.  That  all  legal  requirements  are  ob- 
served. 

Provisional  Approval  of  High  Schools  in 

Rhode  Island. 

High  schools  in  Rhode  Island  not  fully 
meeting  the  requirements  of  standard  high 
schools  may  be  approved  for  the  amount  of 
secondary  school  work  accomplished  as  a 
proportional  part  of  the  work  of  the  four 
secondary  school  years,  provided  that  they 
meet  the  requirements  of  standard  high 
schools  in  length  of  school  year  and  methods 
of  admission,  and  give  satisfactory  evidence 
of  efficiency  in  the  work  they  attempt  to  do. 


238  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

cation,  in  substance  as  follows:  (1)  That  they  shall  be  main- 
tained at  least  38  weeks  in  each  school  year;  (2)  that  three  or 
more  teachers  be  employed,  and  not  less  than  one  teacher  for 
each  30  pupils,  no  class  in  a  laboratory  to  exceed  20  pupils  per 
teacher;  (3)  that  no  teacher  shall  be  required  to  instruct  classes 
more  than  five  hours  a  day;  (4)  that  teachers  hold  teachers' 
certificates;  (5)  that  one  or  more  four-year  courses  be  main- 
tained; (6)  that  adequate  equipment  be  provided;  (7)  that 
proper  standards  of  admission,  not  less  than  completion  of 
elementary  grades,  shall  be  determined;  (8)  that  efficient  in- 
struction and  government  be  regularly  maintained,  and  (9) 
that  all  legal  requirements  be  observed.  The  state  law  also 
'  requires  approval  of  high  schools  or  academies  to  which  children 
are  sent  under  the  law  permitting  towns  to  draw  high  school 
money  when  not  maintaining  high  schools.  With  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  state  inspector,  all  approvals  were  withdrawn;  new 
approvals,  based  on  his  reports,  are  limited  to  three  years  for 
high  schools  and  one  year  for  other  secondary  schools,  and  are 
revocable  at  any  tune.  Provisional  approval  of  high  school 
courses  of  less  than  four  years  may  be  made  for  the  amount  of 
high  school  work  of  approved  standard  accomplished. 

Public  high  schools  have  replaced  academies.  Of  the  early 
academies  many,  which  though  offering  instruction  in  higher 
branches,  were  in  reality  private  schools  devoting  much  of  their 
efforts  to  work  now  part  of  the  elementary  school  grades, 
endured  not  long  beyond  the  opening  of  public  schools.  Those 
that  survived  and  others  organized  at  later  date  confined  them- 
selves to  branches  now  taught  in  public  high  schools  and  to  prepa- 
ration of  boys  and  girls  for  college.  Of  the  old  Rhode  Island 
academies  only  the  Moses  Brown  School  in  Providence,  replac- 
ing the  Friends'  School,  and  the  East  Greenwich  Academy, 
replacing  Kent  Academy,  are  still  in  existence,  though  the 
latter  is  rather  a  quasi-public  high  school  for  the  section  than  a 
genuine  private  academy.  In  recent  years  several  select  schools 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  239 

of  secondary  grade  have  been  established  in  Rhode  Island,  and 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  maintains  academies  in  East 
Providence,  Newport,  Woonsocket,  and  three  in  Providence. 

III.     IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 
SYSTEM. 

Improvement  of  public  schools  in  the  generation  since  public 
schools  became  absolutely  free  schools  through  the  introduction 
of  free  textbooks  has  been  directed  along  six  principal  lines  of 
endeavor,  as  follows : 

1.  Stricter  compulsory  attendance,  extension  of  school  age, 
and  restriction  of  the  employment  of  children. 

2.  Establishment  and  maintenance  of  uniform  high  stand- 
ards for  all  schools. 

3.  Improvements  of  teaching,  and  the  economic  and  pro- 
fessional status  of  the  teacher. 

4.  Extension  of  expert  supervision  of  schools, 

5.  Abolition  of  districts  and  centralization  of  management. 

6.  Provisions  for  the  safety  and  health  of  school  children. 

Compulsory  Attendance  and  Employment  of  Children. 

The  General  Assembly  in  1894  enacted  the  first  law  requiring 
factory  inspection,  providing  for  the  appointment  of  two  factory 
inspectors.  Their  duties  included  enforcement  of  the  law 
excluding  children  under  12  years  of  age  from  factory  employ- 
ment, and  factories  were  required  to  keep  registers  of  children 
under  16.  In  1905  the  number  of  factory  inspectors  was  in- 
creased to  three,*  and  the  age  of  exclusion  of  children  was  raised 
to  13  years  until  December  31,  1906,  and  to  14  years  after  De- 
cember 31, 1906.  The  law  of  1905  also  contained  the  first  draft 
of  the  present  elaborate  age  and  employment  certificate  legisla- 
tion. Two  years  later  the  limitation  of  the  act  to  "factories, 

*Five  in  1910  and  thereafter. 


240  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

manufacturing  and  business  establishments"  was  removed,  the 
new  law  covering  every  person,  firm  or  corporation  .  .  .  em- 
ploying five  or  more  persons  or  employing  any  child  under  16 
years  of  age,  except  at  household  service  or  in  agricultural 
pursuits.  The  form  of  certificate  has  been  changed  from  time 
to  time,  additional  requirements  tending  to  establish,  by  accu- 
rate description,  the  identity  of  the  child  certificated.  The 
law,  as  amended  in  1913,  required  a  physician's  certificate  that 
the  child  was  in  sound  health  and  physically  fit  for  employment. 
As  it  affects  children  of  school  age,  the  factory  inspection  law 
is  closely  correlated  with  school  age  and  attendance  laws. 

The  taking  of  the  annual  school  census  was  transferred  from 
the  supervision  of  town  councils  to  school  committees  in  1900, 
and  the  following  year  the  election  of  truant  officers  likewise 
became  a  function  of  school  committees.  These  reforms  had 
been  advocated  by  school  authorities  for  several  years,  on  the 
ground  that  the  functions  of  school  census  and  attendance 
officers  are  connected  exclusively  with  schools.  In  1902  school 
age  was  raised  to  13  years  for  all  children,  and  to  15  years  for 
all  children  not  regularly  employed,  and  full  school  term  attend- 
ance was  substituted  for  the  older  requirement  of  80  full  school 
days.  The  law  required  every  child  under  15  years  of  age, 
"unless  he  has  completed  in  the  public  schools  the  elementary 
studies  taught  in  the  first  eight  years  of  school  attendance, 
exclusive  of  kindergarten  instruction,  provided  in  the  course  of 
study  adopted  by  the  school  committee  of  the  town  where  such 
child  resides,  or  unless  he  shall  have  completed  13  years  of  life 
and  shall  be  lawfully  employed  at  labor  or  at  service  or  engaged 
in  business,"  to  attend  some  public  day  school  all  the  days  and 
hours  that  the  public  schools  are  in  session,  with  provision  for 
instruction  in  other  schools  or  privately,  in  substitution  for 
instruction  in  public  schools,  provided  the  private  instruc- 
tion or  the  instruction  in  other  schools  was  approved  by  the 
school  committee.  School  age  was  raised  to  14  years  in  1909,  and 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  241 

in  1917  children  under  16  were  required  to  attend  day  school 
regularly  unless  they  were  over  14  and  regularly  and  legally 
employed  or  engaged  in  business.  After  January  1,  1911, 
children  under  16*  were  forbidden  employment  unless  able  to 
"read  at  sight  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences  in  the  English 
language,"  and  unless  healthy  and  physically  able  to  work.  An 
amendment  in  1913  required  that  the  child's  "sound  health" 
and  physical  fitness  should  be  attested  by  a  licensed  physician 
who  had  made  an  examination  of  the  child. 

The  law  in  1917  required  (1)  children  under  14  years  of  age 
and  (2)  children  under  16  years  of  age  not  regularly  and  legally 
employed  or  engaged  in  business,  to  attend  day  school  regularly. 
No  child  under  14  may  be  employed,  and  no  child  under  16  may 
be  employed  without  an  age  and  employment  certificate, 
specifying  (a)  that  he  has  completed  14  years  of  age,  (b)  that 
he  is  able  to  read  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences  in  the 
English  language,  and  (c)  that  he  has  been  examined  physically 
by  a  licensed  physician,  and  (d)  that  the  physician  has  found 
the  child  "in  sufficiently  sound  health  and  physically  able  to  be 
employed  in  any  of  the  occupations  or  processes  in  which  a 
child  between  14  and  16  years  of  age  may  be  legally  employed." 
The  state  pays  for  physical  inspection.  The  child's  age  must 
be  proved  by  (1)  birth  certificate,  (2)  baptismal  certificate, 
or  (3)  passport.  If  none  of  these  documents  can  be  pro- 
duced, the  child  may  be  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  who,  alone,  has  authority  to  establish 
the  age  of  the  child  on  other  evidence.  Under  the  Federal 
Child  Labor  Law  of  1917  the  Rhode  Island  age  and  employ- 
ment certificate  and  the  method  of  determining  age  were 
approved  as  meeting  every  requirement  of  the  Federal  law. 

The  Board  of  Education  in  1913,  commenting  on  the  report  of 
the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  of  the  results  of  a  comparative  study 
of  state  school  systems,  said  of  school  attendance:  "For  many 

*The  change  in  law  did  not  affect  children  who  had  obtained  certificates  before  the  law 
became  operative. 


242  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

years  Rhode  Island  has  made  no  appreciable  gain  in  the  per- 
centage of  its  children  of  school  age  in  school,  although  some 
gains  have  been  made  in  the  average  attendance  of  those  en- 
rolled. While  only  81.1  per  cent,  of  the  entire  school  popula- 
tion attended  school  for  the  year  under  review,  it  is  significant 
that  more  than  94  per  cent,  of  all  children  between  7  and  14 
years  of  age,  which  is  the  compulsory  school  age,  were  enrolled 
in  school  the  same  year.  Our  loss  in  attendance  is  clearly  of 
youth  more  than  14  years  of  age.  Ordinarily  only  six  per  cent, 
of  those  15  years  old,  and  four  per  cent,  of  those  16  years  old, 
attend  school.  The  fact  that  of  nearly  35,000  youth  from  14 
to  18  years  of  age,  only  6802  were  enrolled  last  year  in  our  high 
schools  also  indicates  a  serious  loss  in  education  among  those 
more  than  14  years  of  age.  Even  if  those  14  and  15  years  of 
age  who  are  not  in  regular  employment  were  required  to  attend, 
or  if  continuation  schools  for  those  of  these  ages  who  are  em- 
ployed, with  regular  attendance  of  a  few  hours  weekly,  were 
provided,  untold  gain  might  accrue  in  educational  quantity 
and  efficiency." 

An  amendment  to  the  certificate  law  in  1916  forbade  the 
issuing  of  certificates  for  children  other  than  those  who  pre- 
sented a  request  from  a  prospective  employer.  The  certificate 
must  be  sent  to  the  employer,  who  is  required  to  return  the 
certificate  to  the  school  committee  when  the  child  leaves  his 
service.  This  amendment  aimed  at  correcting  two  abuses: 
(1)  The  taking  of  certificates  by  children  who  wished  to  hold 
the  certificate  as  an  excuse  for  not  attending  school,  and  (2)  the 
transfer  of  certificates  to  other  children.  Under  the  older  prac- 
tice attendance  officers  seldom  gave  attention  to  children 
holding  certificates,  because  the  officers  had  no  record  of  em- 
ployment. Since  the  amendment  was  adopted,  attendance 
officers  have  been  enabled  to  keep  accurate  records  of  children 
over  14  years  of  age.  The  amendment  promises  a  substantial 
improvement  in  attendance  of  children  15  and  16  years  of  age. 


EXTENSION    AND   IMPROVEMENT.  243 

"A  More  Uniform  Standard  in  the  Public  Schools." 

Resuming  its  function  as  a  state  school  committee,  the 
General  Assembly  in  1896  adopted  resolutions,  which  follow: 

"Whereas,  The  Constitution  of  Rhode  Island  declares  that 
'the  diffusion  of  knowledge  as  well  as  of  virtue  among  the  people 
being  essential  to  the  preservation  of  their  rights  and  liberties, 
it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  General  Assembly  to  promote  public 
schools,  and  to  adopt  all  means  which  they  may  deem  necessary 
and  proper  to  secure  to  the  people  the  advantages  and  oppor- 
tunities of  education;'  and 

"Whereas,  The  opportunities  afforded  for  education  should 
be  uniform  throughout  the  state;  and 

"Whereas,  Owing  to  the  inability  of  some  of  the  towns  to 
raise  by  taxation  a  sufficient  amount  of  money  to  provide,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  present  state  appropriations,  public  schools 
equal  to  those  provided  by  the  more  populous  and  wealthy 
towns,  the  school  facilities  of  the  state  are  not  uniformly  of  the 
highest  grade;  therefore 

"Resolved,  That  the  State  Board  of  Education  be  requested 
to  prepare  and  report  to  the  General  Assembly  measures  by 
which  the  state  shall  still  further  supplement  the  revenues  and 
efforts  of  the  towns,  to  the  end  that  the  system  of  public  schools 
throughout  the  state  shall  be  uniformly  of  the  highest  attainable 
standard." 

The  Board  of  Education's  report  covered  school  conditions 
systematically  and  in  detail.  High  schools  were  maintained  in 
Providence,  Newport,  Pawtucket,  Woonsocket,  Central  Falls, 
Cumberland,  East  Providence,  Barrington,  Warren,  Bristol, 
Johnston,  Westerly,  Cranston,  Ashaway  and  Hope  Valley, 
while  pupils  from  Lincoln  attended  high  school  in  Central  Falls. 
Most  other  towns  maintained  schoolhouses  with  one  to  four 
rooms,  with  some  attempt  at  grading  of  pupils  and  courses  of 
study,  but  pupils  seldom  reached  the  upper  grammar  grades. 
Six  towns,  Exeter,  Foster,  Little  Compton,  New  Shoreham, 
Middletown  and  West  Greenwich,  had  no  graded  schools. 
The  towns  maintaining  high  schools  were  mostly  eastern 
towns.  In  the  22  towns  having  no  high  schools  were  188 
schools,  131  of  which  had  less  than  20  pupils  enrolled,  49  less 


244  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

than  10  pupils  enrolled.  The  average  size  of  schools  for  the 
whole  state  was  36  pupils.  The  board  urged  the  necessity  of 
uniting  small  schools,  but  found  that  the  22  towns  comprised 
80  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  the  state  and  contained  only 
20  per  cent,  of  the  total  school  population.  Of  72*  teachers  in 
the  state  having  only  common  school  education,  71  were  em- 
ployed in  the  22  towns.  The  highest  salary  paid  to  any  teacher 
in  these  towns  was  $467.50  annually,  and  the  lowest  $230.83 
to  a  woman,  and  $209.05  to  a  man.  These  towns  had  only  one- 
seventh  of  the  taxable  wealth  of  the  state,  and  in  17  of  them  the 
per  capita  wealth  was  less  than  the  general  average  throughout 
the  state.  The  faults  found  by  the  Board  were  low  grade  or  no 
grade  schools,  small  schools,  poorly  prepared  teachers  and 
poorly  paid  teachers.  The  environmental  difficulties  were 
scattered  population  and  low  average  per  capita  wealth.  The 
Board  recommended  (1)  Consolidation  and  grading  of  schools, 
(2)  better  examination  of  teachers'  qualifications,  (3)  trained 
or  skilled  supervision,  (4)  high  school  facilities,  (5)  financial  aid 
by  the  state,  (6)  that  no  town  should  lose  any  part  of  its  share 
in  the  apportionment  of  state  school  money  by  reason  of  con- 
solidation and  reduction  in  the  number  of  its  schools. 

The  General  Assembly,  at  the  January  session,  1898,  passed 
"An  Act  to  Secure  a  More  Uniform  High  Standard  in  the 
Public  Schools  of  the  State."  It  provided:  (1)  That  if  any 
town  should  consolidate  three  or  more  ungraded  schools,  and 
instead  thereof  maintain  a  graded  school  of  two  or  more  de- 
partments, with  an  average  number  belonging  of  not  less  than 
20  pupils  for  each  department,  the  state  should  pay  $100 
annually  for  each  department  of  said  schools  toward  the  support 
thereof.  (2)  That  similar  payment  should  be  made  for 
similar  unions  by  two  or  more  towns.  (3)  That  if  any  un- 
graded district  school  were  consolidated  with  a  graded  school, 
the  state  should  pay  $100  for  each  district  consolidated,  to  be 

*Only  13  such  teachers  were  employed  in  1916. 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  245 

used  for  the  support  of  the  school  or  the  transportation  of  pupils. 
(4)  State  aid  for  high  schools,  or  for  towns  making  provision 
for  attendance  of  their  children  at  high  schools  or  academies 
in  other  towns.  (5)  An  appropriation  of  $20,000  annually, 
to  be  apportioned  by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 
(6)  That  no  town  should  forfeit  any  part  of  its  share  in  the 
state  school  money  apportioned  on  the  basis  of  number  of 
schools,  by  reason  of  a  reduction  in  the  number  of  its  schools 
by  consolidation.  (7)  That  school  committees  might  con- 
solidate schools  in  which  the  average  number  belonging  was  less 
than  12,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  graded  schools,  and 
should  have  authority  to  provide  for  the  transportation  of 
pupils  to  and  from  schools.  (8)  That  no  person  should  be 
employed  as  principal  or  assistant  in  any  school  supported 
wholly  or  in  part  by  public  money  unless  such  person  held  a 
certificate  of  qualification  issued  by  or  under  the  authority  of 
the  State  Board  of  Education.  After  1900  consolidation  of 
schools  by  school  committees  must 'be  approved  by  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools.  After  1903  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools  was  authorized  to  deduct  from  any  town's  share 
of  state  school  money  an  amount  equal  to  the  wages  paid  by 
the  town  to  any  teacher  not  holding  a  state  certificate. 

Briefly,  the  law  of  1898  provided  for  the  improvement  of 
schools  (1)  by  consolidation  of  small  ungraded  schools  and  the 
establishment  of  graded  schools,  (2)  by  encouraging  the  establish- 
ment of  high  schools  through  state  aid,  and  (3)  by  state  certifica- 
tion of  teachers,  or  the  establishment  of  standard  qualifications. 
The  law  discriminated  between  the  powers  granted  towns  and 
the  powers  granted  school  committees,  the  former  having  a 
general  power  to  consolidate  schools,  the  latter  power  to  act 
only  when  the  average  number  belonging  to  a  school  fell  below 
12*.  The  premium  for  consolidation  of  schools  was  also  an 
inducement  for  abandonment  of  the  district  organization. 

*In  1915  the  restriction  was  abolished.     The  school  committee  may  close  a  school  and 
ur  nish  free  transportation  for  pupils  sent  to  other  schools. 


246  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

Further  aid  for  rural  schools  was  provided  by  an  act  passed 
in  1913,  which  appropriated  $5000  annually  "in  aid  of  the 
public  schools  of  the  state,  to  be  apportioned  by  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools,  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  schools 
in  such  of  the  towns  whose  taxable  property  is  not  adequate  at 
the  average  rate  of  taxation  throughout  the  state  to  provide 
public  schools  of  high  standard."  Money  apportioned  under 
this  act  "may  be  used  in  the  building  or  repairing  of  school- 
houses,  the  furnishing  of  the  same  and  in  the  purchase  of  school 
equipment,  books  or  supplies,  and  for  the  payment  of  teachers." 

In  the  first  report  of  the  Board  of  Education  following  its 
enactment  the  law  was  called  "the  law  providing  a  special 
appropriation  to  meet  conditions  of  urgent  need."  The  law 
followed  the  closing  of  schools  in  several  rural  towns  for  want 
of  available  funds.  Of  the  operation  of  the  law,  the  board  said: 

"It  is  enough  to  report  here  that  under  the  approval  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  the  first  object  sought,  through  special 
arrangements  with  school  committees  of  towns  that  have  had 
short  school  years,  was  to  insure  for  every  boy  and  girl  in  the 
state  school  education  for  at  least  36  weeks  during  the  current 
year.  This  has  been  accomplished  through  provision  already 
made  that  will  insure  a  year  of  36  weeks  at  least  for  every  school 
in  the  school  year  beginning  in  September,  1913.  In  addition, 
other  needed  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  one-room 
schools  of  about  20  towns.  This  work  has  been  governed  by 
the  following  purposes:  That  expenditures  should  be  made 
only  to  meet  real  needs;  that  no  part  of  the  appropriation 
should  be  applied  to  purposes  for  which  local  revenues  are 
available;  that  aid  in  all  cases  should  tend  to  encourage  larger 
local  responsibility  and  in  no  way  lessen  local  expenditure, 
and  that  all  efforts  for  improvement  should  be  made  in  co-opera- 
tion with  school  committees  and  with  their  active  participation. 
School  committees  have  zealously  responded  to  these  efforts 
to  improve  their  schools,  and  in  every  case  the  town  that  has 
received  any  part  of  the  special  appropriation  will  have  expended 
for  the  current  year  a  larger  sum  for  school  purposes  derived 
from  local  revenues  than  in  the  preceding  year." 

The  General  Assembly,  in  1914,  made  the  minimum  school 
year  36  weeks,  thus  forbidding  any  retrogression  from  the 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  247 

standard  already  attained.  The  average  school  year  was  35 
weeks  and  4  days,  that  is,  179  days,  in  1873.  In  1895  it  had 
reached  189  days,  only  one  day  short  of  New  Jersey,  which  was 
first  with  190  days;  in  1898  it  reached  191  days,  but  in  1899  it 
receded  to  190  days,  when  Providence  closed  its  schools  early 
after  a  37  weeks  session.  The  comparative  study  of  the  public 
school  systems  of  the  48  states  undertaken  by  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation  showed  that  Rhode  Island,  with  193  days,  was  first 
in  average  length  of  school  year,  and  fourth  in  the  average 
number  of  school  days  per  child,  116.  The  average  school  year 
in  1915  was  195  days;  in  1916,  194  days.  The  minimum  school 
year  of  180  days  promises  to  improve  both  records. 

Improvement  of  Teachers  and  the  Status  of  Teachers. 

Four  principal  methods  have  been  adopted  to  improve 
teachers,  and  the  professional  and  economic  status  of  teachers, 
as  follows:  Certification,  pensions,  and  a  minimum  salary 
law,  and  professional  education: 

The  "uniform  high  standard"  act  of  1898  gave  the  State 
Board  of  Education  exclusive  power  to  examine  and  license 
school  teachers.  This  power  was  granted  originally  to  school 
committees.  Under  the  Barnard  act,  while  school  committees 
retained  the  power  to  examine  and  license  teachers  for  schools 
within  their  respective  towns,  provision  was  made  for  wider 
certification  by  county  inspectors  and  by  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools.  The  plan  for  higher  certification  was  not 
successful.  The  Trustees  of  the  Normal  School,  in  1880-,  after 
issuing  one  certificate  under  the  authority  given  nearly  10  years 
earlier,  regretted  that  it  had  been  forced  to  act  under  the  law. 

Certification. — Shortly  after  1880,  however,  a  recommendation 
that  the  power  to  examine  and  license  teachers  be  taken  from 
school  committees,  and  that  qualifications  be  standardized  by  a 
state  system  of  certification,  became  an  annual  feature  of  the 
School  Reports,  rivalled  in  frequency  of  repetition  only  by  the 


248  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

recommendations  that  -school  districts  be  abolished  and  that 
expert  supervision  of  schools  be  required.  The  law  of  1898  was 
broad  in  its  simplicity  of  statement,  and  sweeping  in  the  au- 
thority conferred  upon  the  Board  of  Education,  which  had 
power,  not  only  to  issue  certificates,  but  to  determine  the 
grades  of  certificates  and  the  qualifications  essential.  All  exist- 
ing certificates  were  abolished,  and  the  Board  was  at  liberty  to 
examine  all  teachers  in  service,  as  well  as  applicants  for  first 
certificates.  Wise  discretion  was  exercised  in  administering  the 
new  law,  so  that  hardship  was  avoided.  Four  grades  of  certifi- 
cates were  provided  by  the  Board,  of  which  two  were  distinctly 
professional.  The  certificate  law  permits  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, and  the  law  is  used  for  this  purpose,  to  raise  gradually  the 
standards  of  teaching  in  all  the  public  schools  of  the  state,  by 
insisting  upon  better  preparation  of  candidates  for  certificates. 
In  1903  strict  enforcement  of  the  certificate  law  was  simplified 
by  the  authority  given  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to 
withhold  an  amount  of  state  school  money  equal  to  the  wages 
paid  by  any  town  to  a  teacher  without  a  state  certificate. 

The  requirements  for  certification  are :  First  grade — Gradu- 
ation from  an  approved  college  and  completion  of  courses  in  the 
history  of  education,  educational  psychology,  philosophy  of 
education,  methodology,  school  management  and  school  law. 
Second  grade  —  Graduation  from  the  Rhode  Island  Normal 
School  or  an  approved  normal  school  maintaining  at  least  a  two 
years  professional  course  after  graduation  from  a  four-year 
high  school.  Third  grade — Successful  examination  in  elemen- 
tary school  studies,  school  methods,  school  management  and 
school  law,  or  presentation  of  evidence  of  successful  pursuit  of 
these  studies.  Fourth  grade  —  Elementary  school  subjects; 
these  certificates  are  limited  to  two  years  and  may  not  be  re- 
newed; the  holder  must  qualify  at  the  end  of  twp  years  for  a 
third  grade  certificate.  Evening  school  certificates  of  the  third 
and  fourth  grade  are  issued.  Temporary  or  provisional  cer- 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  •     249 

tificates  are  issued  only  to  college  graduates  and  teachers  who 
prove  successful  experience,  and  are  valid  only  until  the  next 
public  examination.  Special  certificates,  limiting  the  holder 
to  specific  subjects,  are  granted  on  proof  of  character,  proper 
education,  training  or  experience,  and  successful  teaching 
experience  or  proof  of  ability  to  teach.  All  candidates  must 
file  written  testimonials  of  good  moral  character,  and  the  names 
of  at  least  two  responsible  persons  as  references.  All  must  sign 
an  oath  or  pledge  of  loyalty  to  the  United  States  and  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island. 

Pensions. — One  of  Comjnissioner  Ranger's  early  recommenda- 
tions was  pensions  for  school  teachers.  In  1907  legislation  pro- 
vided that  any  person  60  years  old,  who  for  35  years  had  been 
engaged  in  teaching  as  his  principal  occupation,  25  of  which, 
including  the  15  immediately  preceding  retirement,  were  in  the 
public  schools,  or  such  other  schools  as  are  supported  wholly 
or  in  part  by  state  appropriations,  might  be  retired  or  retire 
voluntarily  on  an  annual  pension  equal  to  one-half  his  average 
contractual  salary  during  the  last  five  years  before  retiring,  but 
in  no  case  could  the  pensioner  draw  more  than  $500  per  year. 
Administration  of  the  pension  law  was  entrusted  to  the  State 
Board  of  Education.  After  1909  a  teacher  in  service  35  years 
need  not  have  reached  60  years  of  age  before  retirement.  In 
1914  provision  was  made  for  the  retirement  on  pensions  of 
teachers  regularly  employed  not  less  than  20  years  who  become 
physically  or  mentally  incapacitated,  the  pension  to  be  a  pro- 
portionate part  of  the  ordinary  pension  determined  by  the  ratio 
of  his  total  years  of  service  to  35  years.  The  highest  pension 
paid  under  the  law  is  $500;  the  lowest  is  $115,  and  the  average 
is  approximately  $345.  The  total  amount  of  pensions  in  force 
is  in  excess  of  $45,000  annually,  and  the  total  cost  to  the  state 
has  been  $300,000  in  round  numbers,  since  1907.  A  notable 
feature  of  the  Rhode  Island  teachers'  pension  law  is  that  the 
pension  system  is  supported  exclusively  by  the  state.  No 


250  •  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

teacher  is  compelled,  or  even  asked,  to  contribute  toward  his 
pension.  The  law  is,  therefore,  distinctly  and  without  alloy 
a  measure  for  the  improvement  of  the  economic  status  of  teach- 
ers, who  are  relieved  by  its  provisions  of  some  part  of  the  burden 
of  saving  for  old  age.  At  the  same  time  the  law  serves  another 
purpose;  it  provides  for  the  retirement,  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
the  state,  of  veteran  teachers  whose  usefulness  has  diminished. 

Minimum  Salary. — Another  of  Commissioner  Ranger's 
earliest  recommendations — with  teachers'  pensions  one  of  the 
10  recommendations  in  his  report  for  1906,  which  substantially 
outlined  his  platform  and  programme  for  the  improvement  of 
Rhode  Island  schools  —  was  a  teachers'  minimum  salary  law. 
The  recommendation  was  not  essentially  new;  other  Com- 
missioners and  the  Board  of  Education  had  suggested  such  a 
solution  of  the  problem  occasioned  by  low  salaries.  A  minimum 
salary  law  was  adopted  in  1909,  providing  that  "the  annual 
salary  of  a  teacher  regularly  employed  in  any  public  school  of 
the  state  shall  not  be  less  than  $400,"  and  that  the  state  should 
reimburse  towns  for  one-half  the  expense  incurred  by  meeting 
the  requirements  of  the  new  law.  The  law,  though  mandatory 
in  form,  carries  no  penalty.  Yet  there  was  a  quick  response  on 
the  part  of  the  21  towns  affected.  Commenting  on  the  law  in 
1913,  the  State  Board  of  Education  said:  "The  fact  that  the 
average  salary  of  all  teachers  in  our  public  schools  is  $681*  shows 
that  an  annual  salary  of  $400  is  too  low  to  command,  in  general, 
the  services  of  teachers  of  average  ability.  Many  defects_of 
public  education,  without  question,  are  due  to  low  salaries. 
Nevertheless,  the  minimum  salary  law  has  remedied  the  worst 
conditions  due  to  ridiculously  low  salaries,  and  was  a  measure 
of  great  importance." 

Curiously  enough,  the  minimum  salary  law  had  another  effect 
on  rural  school  conditions  besides  the  enrichment  of  teachers. 
More  than  one  local  school  committee,  faced  with  the  duty  of 

*The  average  salary  was  $714.37  in  1915,  $721.91  in  1916,  $736.78  in  1917. 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  251 

increasing  the  salaries  of  teachers,  realized  the  possibility  of 
getting  something  for  their  towns  for  the  additional  expenditure. 
Shrewd  committee  men  "reckoned"  that  the  teacher's  salary 
could  be  increased  without  raising  her  wages,  and  that  the 
increased  salary  might  just  as  well  be  earned  by  requiring  the 
teacher  to  keep  school  for  a  longer  period.  If,  for  instance,  a 
teacher  earned  $320  for  32  weeks  at  $10  per  week,  the  minimum 
salary  law  might  be  met  either  by  raising  her  wages  to  $12.50 
or  by  extending  the  school  year  to  40  weeks,  at  the  same  rate 
of  wages — the  second  plan  was  followed.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  that  the  minimum 
salary  law  was  a  helpful  factor  in  lengthening  the  school  year. 

Education  for  Teachers. — Besides  the  unsurpassed  provision 
for  the  education  and  training  of  teachers  for  elementary  schools 
provided  by  Rhode  Island  Normal  School,  other  opportunities 
for  educating  teachers  are  provided  or  assisted  by  the  state, 
through  extension  courses  at  the  Normal  School,  through  regular 
courses  for  teacher  training  at  Rhode  Island  State  College  and 
Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  and  through  the  graduate 
department  of  education  at  Brown  University.  Teachers'  in- 
stitutes receive  state  aid,  lectures  and  addresses  for  teachers' 
meetings  are  provided  through  the  department  of  education, 
an  educational  library  is  maintained  for  teachers,  and  educa- 
tional publications  are  freely  distributed.  In  1917  a  summer 
school  for  teachers  was  conducted  at  Rhode  Island  Normal 
School. 

Extension  of  Expert  Supervision. 

Upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Education  in  its 
first  report  the  General  Assembly,  in  1871,  required  every  town 
to  employ  a  superintendent  of  schools.  The  problem  of  super- 
vision had  made  little  further  progress  toward  solution  25  years 
later.  In  the  meantime  school  committees  had  been  given  ex- 
clusive power  to  elect  the  superintendent,  but  the  towns  still 


252  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

retained  effective  control  of  the  office  through  the  power  to  fix 
salaries.  In  1902  school  committees  were  given  authority  to 
determine  what  compensation  should  be  paid  the  superintendent, 
and  the  following  year  "An  Act  Providing  for  the  Better 
Management  of  Public  Schools"  (1)  authorized  the  union  of 
towns  in  which  the  aggregate  number  of  schools  did  not  exceed 
60,  for  the  purpose  of  hiring  a  joint  superintendent,  and  the 
payment  by  the  state  of  one-half  the  joint  salary,  the  state's 
share  not  to  exceed  $750  for  each  union,  and  (2)  provided  for 
the  payment  of  $750  per  year  to  any  town  employing  a  super- 
intendent at  not  less  than  $1500  a  year.  No  state  money  was 
to  be  paid,  however,  in  any  case  for  supervising  less  than  40 
schools,  but  this  restriction  was  removed  in  1904.  Only  one 
union  superintendency  resulted.  In  1912  school  committees 
were  authorized  to  form  unions,  but  no  new  union  resulted. 
Since  1908  superintendents  have  been  required  to  hold  certifi- 
cates of  qualification  issued  by  the  Board  of  Education.  By 
act  of  1913  the  law  requiring  the  election  of  superintendents 
annually  was  amended.  No  legal  tenure  of  office  is  provided 
for  superintendents,  but  the  law,  by  establishing  no  tenure, 
permits  the  school  committee  and  superintendent  to  determine 
the  period  of  employment  by  contract. 
The  Board  of  Education,  in  1913,  said: 

"Of  such  vital  importance  is  efficient  supervision  in  school 
administration  that  we  may  not  expect  wholly  satisfactory 
results  until  every  school  in  the  state  has  the  benefits  of  the 
constant  oversight  and  direction  of  a  superintendent  of  pro- 
fessional or  expert  qualifications.  .  .  .  There  remain, 
as  a  year  ago,  17*  of  our  towns,  mostly  those  having  few  schools, 
which  are  under  the  supervision  cf  superintendents  who  devote 
part  of  their  time  to  this  service.  All  towns  and  cities  employ- 
ing superintendents  of  approved  qualifications  who  give  ex- 
clusive service  to  supervision  of  schools  receive  state  aid  for 
such  supervision.  Efforts  have  been  made  in  legislation  to  en- 
courage towns  having  few  schools  to  unite  for  purposes  of  super- 
vision. .  .  .  Another  effort  might  be  made  to  bring  about 
desirable  results  by  authorizing  the  Board  of  Education  to  effect 

*Number  reduced  to  16  in  1914;  to  14  in  1915;  to  7  in  1917. 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  253 

arrangements,  on  the  request  of  school  committees,  at  an  ex- 
pense to  the  state  for  each  town  not  to  exceed  the  amount  now 
allowed  a  town.  Five  superintendents  could  supervise,  with 
efficiency,  the  schools  of  the  17  towns  remaining.  In  the  want 
of  expert  and  systematic  supervision  the  children  of  rural  schools 
suffer  an  inequality  of  educational  provisions  in  comparison 
with  children  of  urban  schools.  The  state  is  expending  annually 
a  large  sum  in  support  of  school  supervision,  but  the  17  towns 
to  which  reference  is  made  receive  no  share  of  it.  In  other 
words,  these  towns  have  thus  far  neglected  to  profit  by  pro- 
visions for  supervision  offered  by  the  state.  More  than  all 
other  teachers,  the  isolated  teacher  of  a  country  school  needs 
the  visitation  of  an  expert  supervisor,  who  can  sympathetically, 
intelligently  and  skilfully  help  her  to  correct  her  mistakes  and 
to  strengthen  all  the  good  work  she  is  now  doing.  Our  school 
committees,  whose  members  are  absorbed  in  private  interests, 
need  the  expert  superintendent  to  acquaint  them  with  the  con- 
dition of  their  schools  as  judged  by  true  standards,  and  to  give 
counsel  for  the  best  management  of  them." 

A  bill  providing  for  the  plan  of  supervision  advocated  by  the 
Board  failed  of  passage  on  the  last  day  of  the  session  of  the 
General  Assembly  in  1914.  Another  bill,  slightly  modifying 
the  original  plan,  passed  the  General  Assembly  in  1915.  It 
provided  that,  upon  the  request  of  the  school  committee  of  any 
town,  the  State  Board  of  Education  may  provide  supervision 
of  professional  grade,  at  an  expense  to  the  state  of  not  exceeding 
$750  per  town,  the  town  paying  not  less  than  $15  per  school 
toward  the  superintendent's  salary.  Two  towns  applied  for 
supervision  in  1915,  and  were  organized  as  a  state  superintend- 
ency  district.  Six  other  towns  were  similarly  organized  as  three 
districts  in  1917,  and  one  town,  in  1917,  elected  a  professional 
superintendent  at  a  salary  of  SI 500,  under  the  plan  for  state 
aid  to  the  amount  of  $750  annually.  There  remained,  in  1917, 
only  seven  towns  without  professional  supervision. 

• 

Abolition  of  Districts. 

The  act  of  1884,  permitting  towns  to  abolish  school  districts, 
was  amended  in  1894  in  such  manner  as  to  make  the  procedure 
more  convenient;  essentially  the  change  permitted  the  vote  to 


254  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

! 

abolish  districts  to  be  taken  by  referendum  instead  of  in  town 
meeting.  By  1894  14  town  school  systems  were  being  admin- 
istered without  districts,  as  follows :  Barrington,  Bristol,  Bur- 
rillville,  Cranston,  Cumberland,  East  Providence,  Johnston, 
Lincoln,  Newport,  North  Providence,  Pawtucket,  Providence, 
Warren  and  Woonsocket.  It  is  not  merely  a  coincidence  that 
this  list  very  closely  resembles  the  list  of  towns  supporting  high 
schools  at  the  same  period,  and  that  most  towns  in  the  list  are 
northern  and  eastern  towns.  A  list  of  towns  employing  full- 
time  superintendents  of  schools  at  the  same  time  would  be,  for 
the  most  part,  merely  a  repetition  of  the  list  of  towns  which  were 
operating  schools  on  the  town  plan  and  had  established  high 
schools.  What  appears  to  be  a  coincidence  is  simply  positive 
proof  that  the  problem  of  school  improvement  in  Rhode  Island, 
though  calling  for  several  reforms,  has  been  essentially  unitary. 
Several  reforms  were  quite  likely  to  follow  speedily  any  deter- 
mined effort  to  improve  school  conditions.  But  it  is  a  condition 
precedent  to  improvement  that  the  taxable  wealth  of  the  town 
shall  be  sufficient  to  permit  reform,  or  that  aid  shall  be  fur- 
nished from  some  other  source  than  public  taxation  of  town 
property.  The  east  and  west  division  of  Rhode  Island  deter- 
mined by  the  quality  of  schools  is  almost  exactly  the  division 
determined  by  wealth  and  population. 

Improvement  of  rural  schools,  in  the  last  analysis,  is  largely  a 
financial  question.  Comparisons  are  invidious;  but  it  is  ridicu- 
lous to  talk  of  town  responsibility  for  schools,  while  the  towns 
supporting  the  poorest  schools  sometimes  are  assessing  them- 
selves for  schools  more  than  double  the  amount  per  dollar  of 
taxable  wealth  assessed  in  more  prosperous  communities,  whose 
schools  are  models  for  excellence.  The  actual  variation  in 
town  support,  measured  by  the  taxes  paid  for  school  support, 
is  four  to  one  in  Rhode  Island. 

There  was,  to  be  sure,  opposition  to  the  abolition  of  districts. 
The  constitutionality  of  the  several  acts  by  which  the  end  was 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  255 

reached  was  tested  in  the  courts,  and  the  act  that  abolished 
districts  finally  was  also  tested.  An  important  decision  was 
rendered  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  1895  (Town  of  Johnston, 
19  R.  I.  279),  in  which  the  court  held  that  registry  voters  might 
vote  legally  on  the  question  of  abolishing  districts.  The 
decision  extended  the  referendum  beyond  the  taxpayers. 
Although  the  amount  of  taxation  was  involved  in  the  adjust- 
ment of  school  property  rights,  the  court  held  that  the  abolition 
of  school  districts  was  essentially  not  a  question  of  taxation,  but 
a  question  of  school  administration.  The  decision  recognized 
the  interest  of  the  citizen  in  schools  without  regard  to  his  liability 
as  a  taxpayer. 

Central  Falls  became  a  city  in  1895  without  the  district  sys- 
tem. Jamestown  and  Little  Compton  abolished  districts  in 
1899,  and  South  Kingstown  and  Westerly  fell  into  line  in  1902. 
Thus  half  the  towns  in  the  state  were  operating  schools  on  the 
town  plan  when  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruction  took 
up  the  district  question  in  1902  and  began  agitation  for  com- 
plete abolition.  In  1903  the  General  Assembly  passed  a  law 
that  abolished  all  remaining  districts  after  January  1,  1904.  It 
is  significant  that  the  same  act  permitted  unions  of  towns  for 
the  employment  of  joint  superintendents,  and  provided  state 
aid  for  the  payment  of  salaries  of  professional  superintendents, 
and  that  another  act,  passed  the  same  day,  provided  a  penalty 
for  the  employment  of  teachers  without  state  certificates. 

The  abolition  of  districts  was  an  important  progressive 
measure,  but  it  was  not  a  panacea.  As  already  pointed  out, 
the  school  problem  in  rural  Rhode  Island  is  largely  a  financial 
problem.  Change  in  the  form  of  administration,  while  helpful, 
must  fall  far  short  of  being  an  adequate  remedy;  and  it  did. 
Moreover,  the  law  abolishing  districts  was  an  imperfect  and 
carelessly  drafted  measure.  Such  important  sections  of  the 
school  law  as  those  regulating  the  length  of  the  school  year,  the 
number  of  pupils  per  teacher  and  the  consolidation  of  ungraded 


256  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

with  graded  schools,  were  written  in  the  phraseology  of  district 
regulations.  Whether  they  had  any  force  as  law  after  January 
1, 1904,  is  a  question  for  moot  court  or  law  club.  When  the  stat- 
utes were  revised  in  1909,  the  commission  omitted  sections  re- 
ferring to  school  districts,  and  the  measures  already  mentioned 
disappeared  altogether  from  the  statute  books.  The  saving 
grace  of  intention  and  interpretation  could  not  be  pleaded  in 
favor  of  a  written  law  which  had  been  deliberately  omitted 
from  the  General  Laws.  The  law  permitting  the  consolidation 
of  ungraded  district  schools  with  graded  schools  was  re-enacted 
with  omission  of  the  word  "  district "  in  1910.  The  law  limit- 
ing the  number  of  pupils  per  teacher  has  never  been  revived, 
and  the  minimum  school  year  reappeared  only  in  1914. 

Provisions  for  the  Safety  and  Health  of  School  Children. 

Seminaries,  colleges,  academies  and  schoolhouses  were  in- 
cluded in  the  buildings  required,  in  1890,  to  be  equipped  with 
fire  escapes.  The  law  was  amplified  in  1908,  providing  there- 
after for  windows  and  doors  swinging  outward,  and  for  in- 
spection. By  act  of  1913  school  principals,  public  and  private, 
are  required  to  conduct  fire  drills.  The  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  has  published  rules  for  fire  drills. 

Sanitary  Standards. — In  1911  the  Board  of  Education  was 
empowered  from  time  to  time  to  "approve  proper  standards 
of  lighting,  heating,  ventilating,  seating  and  other  sanitary 
arrangements  of  school  buildings,  and  proper  regulations  con- 
cerning the  same  as  it  may  deem  necessary  for  the  safety  and 
health  of  persons  who  may  attend  school,"  and  to  "communi- 
cate the  same  to  the  school  committee  of  each  city  and  town 
and  to  any  committee  having  charge  of  the  erection,  alteration, 
equipment  or  furnishing  of  any  school  building."  The  Board's 
power  is  merely  advisory.  Standards,  carefully  drawn  after 
several  years  of  investigation  and  study,  were  adopted  by  the 
Board  in  1917. 


EXTENSION    AND    IMPROVEMENT.  257 

Sight  and  Hearing  Tests. — Every  superintendent  of  schools  is 
required,  by  act  of  1911,  to  cause  "an  examination  of  the  sight 
and  hearing  of  all  children  of  the  schools  under  his  supervision 
to  be  made  at  least  once  a  year  by  teachers  or  school  physicians," 
and  to  make  provision  for  preserving  the  records  of  the  exami- 
nations of  school  children  and  for  notifying  parents  of  defects. 

Medical  Inspection. — The  same  act  provided  an  annual  appro- 
priation for  medical  inspection  in  schools,  to  be  apportioned  by 
the  State  Board  of  Education  among  the  towns  providing  ap- 
proved medical  inspection,  the  state  paying  one-half  the  town's 
expenditure  up  to  a  limit  of  $250  per  town.  The  law  permits 
the  school  committee  in  any  town  to  employ  inspecting  phy- 
sicians to  make  examinations  at  least  once  each  year  of  pupils, 
teachers  and  janitors  of  schools,  public  and  private.  Eighteen 
towns,  including  about  85  per  cent,  of  the  school  population, 
make  provision  for  regular  medical  inspection,  as  follows: 
Barrington,  Bristol,  Central  Falls,  Coventry,  East  Providence, 
Jamestown,  Johnston,  Hopkinton,  Newport,  North  Providence, 
North  Smithfield,  Pawtucket,  Providence,  Warren,  Warwick, 
West  Warwick,  Westerly  and  Woonsocket. 

Town  reports  show  63  physicians  and  16  nurses  engaged  in 
medical  inspection,  and  annual  expenditures  exceeding  $25,000. 
More  than  75,000  children  receive  the  benefits  of  medical 
inspection. 

Physical  Training. — The  General  Assembly  in  1917,  upon  the 
recommendation  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  urged 
by  petitions  presented  by  organizations  interested  in  child 
welfare,  enacted  a  law  which  requires  that  every  child  over 
eight  years  of  age,  receiving  instruction  in  public  or  private 
schools,  shall  have  an  average  of  20  minutes  instruction  in 
physical  education  for  every  school  day.  The  State  Board  of 
Education  was  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  putting  the  new  law 
into  effect,  and,  under  the  direction  of  the  Commissioner  of 


258  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

'  Public  Schools,  a  Syllabus  for  Physical  Education  was  prepared 
by  Miss  Gertrude  Manchester  of  Rhode  Island  Normal  School. 
This  syllabus,  a  volume  of  120  pages,  has  been  printed  and 
distributed  to  teachers  in  public  and  private  schools  throughout 
the  state. 

Dental  Inspection. — An  act  passed  in  1917  requires  medical 
inspectors  to  report  defective  teeth  and  other  dental  defects 
needing  attention,  and  provides  for  notice  to  be  sent  to  parents. 
The  law  also  permits  school  committees  to  establish  public 
dental  clinics,  and  to  provide  for  the  treatment  in  these  clinics 
of  children  whose  parents  neglect  after  a  month's  notice  to 

remedy  conditions  needing  attention. 

\ 

Examination  of  Children  for  Employment. — No  child  may  be 
granted  an  age  and  employment  certificate  until  he  has  been 
examined  by  a  reputable  physician,  and  has  been  found  to  be 
sound  in  health  and  physically  fit  for  employment. 

Hazing  of  students  was  forbidden  by  statute  in  1909.  Towns 
were  authorized,  in  1912,  to  provide  open-air  schools  for  delicate 
children  and  to  furnish  for  the  conduct  of  "such  schools,  such 
medical,  food  or  other  supplies  as  are  necessary  for  the  purpose 
for  which  such  schools  are  or  may  be  established." 

OTHER  IMPROVEMENTS. 

Travelling  Libraries. — Under  the  administration  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  the  work  of  assisting  public  libraries  has  been 
broadened  beyond  the  provision  of  financial  aid  in  the  law 
of  1875.  There  were,  in  1917,  62  free  public  libraries  in  the 
state,  containing  nearly  600,000  books  and  making  more  than 
1,130,000  loans  annually.  In  1907  the  Board  of  Education 
was  authorized  "to  establish  and  maintain  a  system  of  travel- 
ling libraries  within  the  state,  to  render  aid  to  libraries  which 
shall  establish  branch  or  visiting  libraries  in  schools  or  places 
approved  by  said  board,  and  to  render  aid  to  associations  which 


EXTENSION    AND    IMPROVEMENT.  259 

> 

operate  travelling  libraries."  The  act  carried  an  annual  appro- 
priation. Four  years  later  the  appropriation  was  doubled,  and 
the  Board  was  authorized  "to  provide  for  the  visitation  and 
examination  of  free  public  libraries  and  the  management  of 
travelling  libraries."  Travelling  libraries  made  loans  totalling 
10,627  in  1908,  19,369  in  1909,  25,623  in  1910,  28,284  in  1911, 
30,073  in  1912,  31,464  in  1913,  33,717  in  1914,  47,770  in  1915, 
52,106  in  1916,  and  47,761  in  1917. 

There  had  been  no  increase  in  the  number  of  travelling 
libraries  or  the  number  of  volumes  in  them  in  three  years  up 
to  1914,  although  the  circulation  increased  5000  volumes.  The 
Board  of  Education,  in  its  report  for  1913,  attributed  the 
failure  of  increase  to  the  fact  that  "a  point  in  their  develop- 
ment" had  been  reached  "where  it  now  takes  nearly  all  available 
means  to  replace  books,  repair  libraries  and  meet  the  expenses 
of  operation."  The  board  recommended  a  larger  appropriation. 
The  appropriation  was  increased  by  $500  to  $2500  in  1915. 
The  figures  for  the  three  years  following  1914  show  marked  gains 
in  the  number  of  volumes  and  in  the  circulation  of  travelling 
libraries. 

Patriotic  Instruction. — Without  a  distinct  announcement  of 
its  purpose,  the  state  is  making  a  notable  effort  to  teach  patriot- 
ism in  the  schools,  an  undertaking  rendered  necessary  by  the 
large  population  of  foreign  birth  or  foreign  parentage,  the  chief 
agency  for  whose  assimilation  is  the  public  school.  The  ob- 
servance of  school  holidays  serves  the  purpose  in  an  admirable 
manner.  The  policy  of  the  state  in  this  respect  has  changed 
somewhat  in  recent  years.  For  the  older  practice  of  closing 
schools  has  been  substituted  observance  by  appropriate  school 
exercises.  Arbor  Day  was  the  first  holiday  for  school  ob- 
servance, and  in  connection  with  it,  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  prepares  annually  a  programme,  60,000  copies  of  which 
are  distributed  in  the  schools  and  serve  as  a  guide  and  help 
for  teachers  arranging  school  programmes.  Grand  Army  Flag 


260  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

Day,  Feb.  12,  commemorating  as  well  the  birthday  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  was  the  first  patriotic  holiday  observed  in  similar 
manner;  and  May  4,  as  Rhode  Island  Independence  Day,  com- 
memorating the  Rhode  Island  Declaration  of  Independence,  is 
also  an  annual  day  for  special  observance.  School  holidays  are 
New  Year's,  Washington's  Birthday,  Memorial  Day,  July  4, 
Labor  Day,  Columbus  Day,  Thanksgiving  Day  and  Christmas. 
The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  is  required  by  law  to  pro- 
vide a  uniform  salute  to  the  flag,  to  be  used  daily  in  the  schools. 
School  committees  must  supply  every  schoolhouse  with  a  flag 
and  flagpole.  The  display  of  foreign  flags,  except  on  special 
occasions  and  then  only  in  connection  with  the  American  flag,  is 
forbidden. 

Vocational  Education* — The  General  Assembly,,  in  1910, 
directed  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to  make  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  conditions  and  needs  of  the  state  in  respect 
to  "industrial  education,  including  agricultural  education,  and 
to  investigate  the  practice  and  progress  of  industrial  and  agri- 
cultural education  in  other  states,  and  to  make  a  report  thereon, 
with  his  recommendations,  to  the  General  Assembly."  The 
report  was  a  document  of  100  printed  pages,  covering  the  sub- 
jects thoroughly  and  in  detail.  In  1912  the  General  Assembly 
authorized  state  aid  in  support  of  industrial  education,  as 
follows: 

"In  case  any  town  shall  provide  instruction  in  manual 
training  and  household  arts  in  its  public  schools,  with  the 
approval  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  such  town  shall  be 
entitled  to  receive  as  aid  from  the  state  a  sum  not  exceeding 
one-half  of  the  amount  expended  by  said  town  for  the  purchase 
of  apparatus  necessary  for  such  instruction. 

"Any  town  that  shall  establish  and  maintain  day  or  evening 
courses  for  vocational  industrial  education,  including  instruc- 
tion in  the  principles  and  practice  of  agriculture  and  training 
in  the  mechanic  and  other  industrial  arts,  which  courses  are 
approved  as  to  equipment,  instruction,  expenditure,  super- 
vision and  conditions  of  attendance  by  the  State  Board  of 

*See  R.  I.  School  of  Design,  supra. 


EXTENSION    AND    IMPROVEMENT.  261 

Education,  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  aid  from  the  state  in 
support  of  instruction  in  such  courses  to  an  amount  not  exceed- 
ing one-half  of  the  entire  expenditure  of  the  same.  The  cost 
of  equipment  or  of  buildings  or  of  land  or  of  rent  of  rooms  shall 
not  be  included  in  this  reckoning.  This  section  shall  not  be 
construed  to  entitle  towns  to  receive  state  aid  for  manual 
training  high  schools  or  other  secondary  schools  maintaining 
manual  training  departments,  except  in  so  far  as  such  schools 
include  courses  properly  classed  as  industrial  courses." 

An  appropriation  of  $5000  was  made  to  carry  out  the  pro- 
visions of  the  act,  and  this  was  made  an  annual  appropriation  in 
1914.  Pawtucket,  Central  Falls,  Warwick  and  Westerly  were 
the  earliest  towns  to  take  advantage  of  the  law  and  receive 
state  aid.  "The  criticism  so  frequently  made,"  said  the  Board 
of  Education  in  1913,  "that  the  work  of  the  public  schools  is  in 
no  way  related  to  the  outside  interests  of  the  child  cannot  be 
made  of  the  schools  in  these  places.  The  time  appears  to  be 
approaching  when  it  will  be  more  and  more  difficult  to  justify, 
in  any  of  our  schools,  criticism  of  this  sort.  With  the  increased 
opportunities  for  choice  in  studies  made  possible  by  the  more 
general  introduction  of  industrial' education  in  the  schools,  it 
will  be  possible  to  determine  with  greater  certainty  just  what 
the  individual  needs  of  each  child  are,  and  to  offer  him  what 
will  contribute  most  to  his  .highest  development." 

The  extension  of  industrial  vocational  education  in  Rhode 
Island  has  not  been  rapid.  The  people  seem  to  have  discrimi- 
nated between  vocational  education  in  schools  beyond  and 
apart  from  the  public  elementary  schools,  and  such  education 
in  the  public  schools.  Dr.  Ranger  has  attributed  this  discrimi- 
nation to  a  keen  regard  for  the  education  common  to  all.  Rhode 
Island  accepted  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  Vocational  Edu- 
cation law  in  1917,  which  provided  Federal  assistance  for  this 
sort  of  education. 

Evening  Schools. — Public  evening  schools  have  been  a  care 
of  the  Board  of  Education  since  1873.  A  marked  gain  in  the 
efficiency  of  these  schools  followed  the  passage  of  the  teachers' 


262  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

certificate  law.  The  raising  of  school  age  has  taken  from  the 
evening  schools  a  considerable  proportion  of  juvenile  scholars, 
emphasizing  the  mission  of  these  schools  among  the  older 
youth  and  the  adult  population.  Disorderly  elements  have 
been  rigorously  excluded,  and  standards  have  been  established 
and  insisted  upon.  Special  classes  for  foreigners  have  been 
provided,  and  a  better  grade  of  teachers  induced  to  take  up  the 
work.  The  personnel  of  the  teaching  force,  the  morale  of  the 
schools,  and  the  dignity  and  efficiency  maintained  are  splendid. 
Bristol,  Burrillville,  Central  Falls,  Coventry,  Cranston,  Cumber- 
land, Lincoln,  Newport,  Pawtucket,  Providence,  Warren,  West- 
erly, West  Warwick,  and  Woonsocket  maintain  evening  schools. 
East  Providence,  Johnston  and  North  Providence  make  pro- 
vision for  the  instruction  of  those  who  apply  for  it,  in  the 
evening  schools  of  Providence.  In  the  cities  the  work  of  the 
evening  schools  includes  high  school  classes.  Emphasis  is 
placed  upon  practical  application,  and  as  a  rule  the  evening 
schools  are  more  closely  related  to  the  outside  interests  of  their 
pupils  than  are  the  day  schools.  In  1917  the  State  Board  of 
Education  condemned  a  rising  practice  of  charging  a  registra- 
tion fee  for  evening  schools,  holding  that  evening  schools,  like 
day  schools,  are  under  the  law  "free  public  schools." 

Kindergarten  and  Montessori. — The  public  kindergarten — a 
modification  of  the  Froebel  school  adapted  to  American  needs — 
has  come  to  be  an  adjunct  of  some  city  school  systems,  in  spite 
of  the  opinion,  expressed  by  the  Board  of  Education  in  1895, 
that  the  cost  was  prohibitive.  At  the  Rhode  Island  Normal 
School  an  experiment  with  the  Montessori  infant  school  is 
being  conducted,  in  charge  of  Miss  Clara  Craig,  who  spent  a 
year  in  Italy  with  Madame  Montessori.  The  past  decade  has 
witnessed  the  beginning  and  rapid  extension  of  school  play- 
grounds, school  gardens,  vacation  schools,  school  lectures, 
recreation  centres,  mothers'  clubs  and  school  improvement 
associations,  all  contributing  to  wider  use  of  the  schools  and 


EXTENSION   AND    IMPROVEMENT.  263 

the  recognition  of  the  public  school  as  a  community  social 
centre. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  IMPROVEMENT. 

Returning  to  1894,  the  Board  of  Education  in  that  year  made 
three  principal  recommendations:  (1)  That  school  districts  be 
abolished,  (2)  that  a  state  system  of  examination  and  certifica- 
tion of  teachers  be  inaugurated,  and  (3)  that  expert  or  pro- 
fessional supervision  be  extended  to  cover  all  sections  of  the 
state.  Other  improvements  advocated  by  the  Board  were 
increased  school  accommodations  and  supervision  of  school- 
house  construction;  extension  of  manual  training,  then  already 
inaugurated  in  Newport  and  Providence,  and  at  Sockanosset; 
improvement  in  the  teaching  of  drawing;  extension  of  school 
work  among  defective  classes,  and  a  new  School  Manual.  The 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  discussed  conditions  in  rural 
schools,  citing  the  fact  that  64  schools  in  the  state  accommo- 
dated less  than  10  pupils  each.  Contrary  to  modern  notions 
of  the  value  of  individual  instruction  which  small  classes  makes 
possible,  the  Commissioner  characterized  these  schools  as  bad 
schools,  because  the  pupils  lacked  the  incentive  of  classroom 
rivalry.  Aside  from  pedagogical  reasoning,  it  is  altogether 
likely  that  he  was  right,  because  the  10-pupil  school  usually 
has  been  a  neglected  school  conducted  by  an  inferior  teacher. 
The  Commissioner  advocated  closing  such  schools  and  pro- 
vision for  the  transportation  of  children  to  larger  schools. 
Together  the  two  reports  outlined  a  comprehensive  programme 
for  school  improvement. 

A  revised  School  Manual  was  published  in  1896.  In  the  same 
year  the  city  of  Providence  was  brought  under  the  general  school 
law.  This  was  an  important  change,  beyond  the  administrative 
reform  in  the  city  itself,  where  the  school  committee  was  freed 
from  control  by  the  city  council.  For  the  state  at  large  it 
meant  abolition  of  recognition  of  two  standards  for  schools,  and 
the  rallying  of  Providence  to  interest  in  the  general  state  school 


264  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

system,  of  which  the  city  schools  were  thereafter  to  be  a  part. 
In  the  same  year  also,  the  General  Assembly  resumed  its  func- 
tion as  a  state  school  committee,  and  asked  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion to  recommend  measures  for  raising  the  public  schools  of 
the  state  to  a  uniform  high  standard.  The  act  of  1898,  follow- 
ing the  Board's  report,  was  in  title,  "An  Act  to  Secure  a  More 
Uniform  High  Standard  in  the  Public  Schools  of  the  State," 
and  in  its  provisions  for  (a)  financial  aid  to  encourage  grading 
of  schools,  (b)  financial  aid  for  high  schools,  and  (c)  state  cer- 
tification of  teachers,  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  history 
of  public  education  in  Rhode  Island.  After  the  act  of  1828 
establishing  public  schools,  and  the  Barnard  act  reorganizing 
the  system,  it  ranks  with  the  abolition  of  tuition,  free  textbooks, 
compulsory  attendance  and  the  abolition  of  districts. 

The  laws  (1)  of  1900  transferring  the  taking  of  the  school 
census  from  town  councils  to  school  committees;  (2)  of  1901 
transferring  the  duty  of  electing  truant  officers  from  town  coun- 
cils to  school  committees;  (3)  of  1902  permitting  school  com- 
mittees to  determine  the  compensation  to  be  paid  superin- 
tendents of  schools,  and  (4)  of  1903  directing  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools  to  withhold  state  school  money  for  violation 
of  the  law  requiring  teachers  to  hold  state  certificates,  accom- 
plished administrative  reforms,  and  were  corrective  of  earlier 
legislation.  Compulsory  school  age  was  raised  to  13  years  in 
1902,  and  the  period  of  required  attendance  was  increased  from 
80  days  to  the  full  school  year  for  all  children  under  14,  and  for 
children  14  years  old  not  lawfully  employed  or  engaged  in 
business.  In  1903  "An  Act  Providing  for  the  Better  Manage- 
ment of  Public  Schools"  provided  (1)  for  the  abolition  of  school 
districts,  (2)  for  joint  superintendencies,  and  (3)  for  financial 
aid  for  the  payment  of  salaries  of  full-time  superintendents  of 
schools. 

Commissioner  Stockwell  resigned  in  1905,  after  30  years  of 
service,  a  record  equal  to  the  combined  service  of  all  his  prede- 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  265 

cessors.  His  best  effort  while  in  office  had  been  his  fight  for 
improved  attendance,  in  which  he  led  the  state  to  clear  under- 
standing of  the  modern  theory  of  universal  education,  to  be 
enforced  by  compulsory  school  attendance.  Other  important 
reforms  accomplished  during  his  administration  were  the  intro- 
duction of  free  textbooks  and  the  abolition  of  districts,  the 
latter  the  last  major  reform  needed  to  round  out  the  Barnard 
act.  His  successor  in  office  was  Dr.  Walter  E.  Ranger,  the 
present  Commissioner,  who  was  called  to  Rhode  Island  from 
the  State  Superintendency  in  Vermont.  Thus  after  60  years, 
when  it  had  completed  in  every  detail  the  programme  for  school 
reform  outlined  by  Henry  Barnard,  Rhode  Island  repeated  its 
action  of  1843,  by  seeking  outside  the  state  an  expert  public 
educator,  trained  under  and  familiar  with  several  state  school 
systems.  The  election  of  Dr.  Ranger  emphasized  the  function 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  as  an  expert  and  profes- 
sional adviser. 

A  SECOND  SURVEY— THE  RANGER  PLATFORM. 

Commissioner  Ranger  made  no  recommendations  in  his 
earliest  annual  report,  declaring  that  he  must  first  make  him- 
self thoroughly  familiar  with  school  conditions  in  Rhode  Island. 
In  his  second  report,  in  1906,  he  recommended:  * 

1.  Pensions  for  teachers. 

2.  State  aid  for  travelling  libraries. 

3.  A  state  school  and  home  for  the  feeble-minded. 

4.  State  certification  of  superintendents,  as  of  teachers. 

5.  A  minimum  salary  law  for  teachers. 

6.  A  more  practical  equalization  of  educational  opportuni- 
ties, to  be  secured  by  extension  of  high  school  education  for  all 
the  youth  of  the  state,  and  by  skilful  supervision. 

*The  order  assigned  by  Dr.  Ranger  was  1,  10,  3,  7,  5,  4,  9,  6,  8,  2.  In  the  text  the  order 
is  rearranged  to  conform  to  the  order  of  accomplishment.  The  figures  in  the  paragraph 
below  refer  back  to  the  figures  in  the  platform. 


266  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

7.  Industrial  and  trade  schools. 

8.  Improved  school  sanitation,  and  sanitary  standards: 

9.  Reasonable  tenure  for  teachers  and  superintendents. 
10.  A  state  summer  school  for  teachers. 

In  1907  the  General  Assembly  enacted  (1)  a  teachers'  pension 
law,  provided  an  annual  appropriation  for  (2)  travelling  libra- 
ries, and  authorized  the  establishment  of  an  (3)  institution  for 
the  feeble-minded,  thus  undertaking  immediately  three  of  the 
reforms  suggested  by  the  Commissioner.  State  (4)  certification 
of  superintendents  of  schools  was  required  in  1908,  and  in  1909 
a  (5)  teachers'  minimum  salary  law  was  enacted.  In  the  year 
last  named  financial  aid  for  high  schools  was  increased,  and  the 
(6)  provision  of  high  schools  or  high  school  opportunities  was 
made  compulsory.  The  General  Assembly,  in  1910,  ordered 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to  make  a  special  investi- 
gation and  report  on  the  state's  need  of  industrial,  vocational 
and  agricultural  education,  and  in  1912  provided  an  appropria- 
tion for  the  encouragement  and  aid  of  towns  providing  (7) 
vocational  and  industrial  education.*  The  same  year  the 
Board  of  Education  was  authorized  to  approve  proper  (8) 
standards  of  heating,  lighting,  ventilating,  seating  and  other 
sanitary  arrangements  of  schools,  and  plans  for  the  construction 
of  sanitary  school  buildings,  and  state  aid  for  medical  inspec- 
tion was  provided.  One  year  (9)  tenure  for  superintendents 
was  extended  in  1913  by  omission  from  the  law  of  the  provision 
for  annual  election.  Legally  the  teacher's  tenure  is  still  one 
year,  but  the  narrow  legal  view  is  far  away  from  the  customary 
tenure  of  teachers.  In  some  towns  appointments  are  designated 
"probationary,"  "temporary"  and  "permanent."  In  some 
salaries  are  graded  according  to  length  of  service,  and  the 
teacher  begins  her  work  with  the  expectation  of  continuance. 
Custom  is  building  a  tenure  resembling  "tenancy  from  year  to 

"Textile  school  at  School  of  Design,  1913. 


EXTENSION    AND    IMPROVEMENT.  267 

year,"  which  simply  goes  on,  after  a  period  of  satisfactory  ser- 
vice, practically  during  "good  behavior."  No  (10)  permanent 
summer  school  for  teachers  has  been  established,  but  the  Rhode 
Island  Normal  School  has  broadened  its  advanced  and  exten- 
sion courses,  and  in  1912,  the  Board  of  Education  was  author- 
ized to  establish  post-graduate  courses  for  teacher  training  in 
Brown  University.  In  1917,  a  summer  school  was  conducted 
at  Rhode  Island  Normal  School. 

In  1910  the  General  Assembly  made  provision  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  Assistant  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  to  serve 
under  the  direction  of  the  Commissioner.  William  Andrew 
was  appointed.  His  successors  in  office  have  been  Valentine 
Almy,  1912-1917,  and  Emerson  L.  Adams,  1917.  The  employ- 
ment of  children  under  13  was  forbidden  in  1906,  and  under  14 
after  1906.  School  age  was  raised  to  14  years  in  1909,  and  in 
1911  employment  of  children  under  16  unable  to  read  at  sight 
and  write  simple  English  sentences  legibly  was  forbidden. 
The  General  Assembly  in  1913  provided  an  annual  appropria- 
tion, to  be  apportioned  to  aiding  towns  unable,  at  the  average 
rate  of  taxation  throughout  the  state,  to  maintain  schools  of 
high  standard.  An  untold  and  incalculable  improvement  of 
rural  school  conditions  has  been  brought  about  and  will  be 
furthered  through  use  of  this  appropriation,  the  first  state 
school  appropriation  in  which  none  but  rural  schools  have 
shared.  One  of  the  improvements  made  possible  through  it  is 
the  minimum  school  year  of  36  weeks,  made  law  in  1914.  The 
General  Assembly  in  1915  provided  financial  aid  through  which 
the  system  of  professional  school  supervision  may  be  spread 
into  every  town  in  the  state. 

A  REVIEW  BY  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION. 

"A  review  of  the  past  record  of  Rhode  Island  in  education," 
said  the  Board  of  Education  in  a  recent  report,  "gives  evidence 
of  progress  without  revolution  or  radical  innovations,  but 
reveals  steady  advancement  through  a  natural  development, 


268  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

energized  by  a  progressive  public  spirit.  Our  progress  has 
been  marked  by  a  conservation  of  past  gains  as  well  as  by  new 
achievements.  Improvement  and  expansion  seem  to  have 
come  gradually  and  steadily,  in  response  to  the  demands  of  an 
enlightened  public  opinion,  and,  in  general,  advances  in  educa- 
tional law  and  practice  have  become  permanently  established 
in  public  confidence  and  support.  For  these  reasons,  our 
educational  system  is  the  product  of  our  social  and  economic 
experience  and  a  vital  part  of  the  civic  organization  of  the  state. 

"The  protection  of  life  and  property  is  not  the  sole  purpose 
of  government.  One  of  its  chief  functions  is  to  promote  the 
common  welfare.  An  intelligent  citizenship  is  the  basis  of 
public  weal.  Without  education  free  government  cannot 
endure.  For  these  reasons,  the  proper  education  of  the  young 
becomes  the  most  important  obligation  of  the  people  and  the 
highest  function  of  the  people's  government.  No  other  public 
interest  deserves  the  serious  attention  of  the  General  Assembly 
more  than  that  of  public  education.  Our  educational  organiza- 
tion has  been  established,  developed,  and  is  governed  by  its 
law,  and  upon  its  wise  and  ready  action  depend  future  pros- 
perity and  progress.  The  General  Assembly  has  no  higher 
duty  assigned  it  by  the  Constitution  of  the  state,  no  greater 
opportunity  to  remedy  social  evils  and  improve  civic  conditions, 
than  may  be  found  in  its  responsibility  for  public  schools. 

"The  educational  importance  of  our  public  schools  is  recog- 
nized when  we  appreciate  the  fact  that  nearly  90,000  pupils 
are  instructed  in  them  by  more  than  2500  teachers.  From  an 
economic  point  of  view,  our  educational  organization  assumes 
magnitude  when  we  realize  that  it  was  maintained  during  the 
year  under  review  at  an  expense  of  more  than  $3,000,000.  In 
other  words,  in  addition  to  $10,000,000  invested  in  school 
property,  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  yearly  expends  for  public 
education  the  equivalent  of  a  four  per  cent,  income  of  an  in- 
vestment of  $75,000,000.  This  may  be  regarded  as  an  economic 
measure,  or  value,  of  the  public  responsibility  with  which  our 
public  educational  institutions  are  endowed. 

"Not  long  ago  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  published  the 
results  of  a  comparative  study  of  the  public  school  systems  of 
the  48  states.  It  is  instructive  to  observe  what  rank  we  hold 
in  certain  elements  of  public  education.  In  the  survey  Rhode 
Island  ranked  as  llth  in  10  educational  features,  selected  as 
tests  of  quantity  and  efficency.  She  was  given  a  place  in  the 
first  group  of  states  on  five  tests,  in  the  second  group  on  three 
tests,  and  in  the  third  and  fourth  groups  on  one  test  each. 
Among  all  the  states,  Rhode  Island  was  first  in  the  average 
length  of  school  year  (193  days),  fourth  in  the  average  number 
of  school  days  per  child  (116  days),  fifth  in  value  of  school 
property  relative  to  school-  population  ($78  per  child),  fifth  in 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  269 

high  school  attendance  (84  to  1000  in  elementary  schools), 
and  ninth  in  teachers'  salaries,  the  average  annual  salary  being 
given  at  $607,  which  was  actually  $644  for  the  year  taken  for 
the  survey,  and  which  has  now  risen  above  $670.  Only  th'ree 
states  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  pay  higher  salaries  than 
Rhode  Island.  They  are  New  York,  Massachusetts  and 
New  Jersey. 

"The  high  relative  position  of  Rhode  Island's  educational 
organization  among  American  school  systems  could  not  have 
been  attained  without  the  achievement  of  a  long  series  of 
legislative  acts,  prompted  by  true  foresight  and  sound  judgment, 
and  supplemented  by  genuine  vigilance  and  persistent  endeavor 
in  educational  execution.  With  few  mistakes  in  legislation 
or  administration,  our  educational  record  has  been  one  of  steady 
advancement  and  real  accomplishments.  In  comparison  with 
other  states,  our  state  has  distinct  advantages  in  its  great  com- 
parative wealth,  in  its  economic  situation  of  a  concentrated 
population,  and  in  certain  definite  gains  and  experience.  It 
may  attain  a  higher  relative  rank,  if  it  does  not  neglect  its  very 
means  and  opportunities  of  advancement.  Persistent  effort  for 
improvement,  both  in  legislation  and  administration,  cannot 
fail  not  only  to  maintain  but  to  raise  the  relative  position  of  our 
educational  system." 

THE  CHRONOLOGY  OF  IMPROVEMENT— 
A  SUMMARY. 

1894  Factory  inspection. 

Model  and  training  school  for  Normal  School. 

1895  Providence  and  Brown  University  co-operate  to  train 

high  school  teachers. 

1896  General    Assembly    asks    State   Board   to    recommend 

measures  to  promote  a  uniform  high  standard  in 

schools. 

1898    New  Normal  School  building  opened. 
State  appropriation  to  aid  high  schools. 
State  appropriation  to  encourage  grading  of  schools. 
State  certification  of  teachers. 

1900  School  census  under  supervision  of  school  committees. 
School  committees  to  provide  flags  for  schoolhouses. 

1901  School  committees  to  elect  truant  officers. 


270  EXTENSION    AND    IMPROVEMENT. 

1902  Compulsory  school  age  raised  to  13  years. 

School  committees  to  fix  compensation  of  superintendents. 

1903  State  aid  for  full-time  superintendencies. 
Joint  superintendencies  authorized. 

1904  All  remaining  school  districts  abolished. 

School  committees  may  unite  to  elect  joint  superin- 
tendent. 

1905  Minimum  employment  age  13  years. 
Act  abolishing  districts  perfected. 

1906  Procedure  for  condemning  property  for  schools  perfected. 
Commissioner  Ranger  reports  plan  for  school  improve- 
ment. 

1907  Minimum  employment  age,  14  years. 
State  home  and  school  for  feeble-minded. 
Teachers'  pensions. 

State  aid  for  travelling  libraries. 

1908  Instruction  for  adult  blind  in  their  homes. 
State  certification  for  superintendents  of  schools. 

1909  Towns  required  to  provide  high  school  education. 
Compulsory  school  age  14  years. 

Teachers'  minimum  salary  law. 

1910  Commissioner  to  investigate  industrial  vocational  educa- 

tion. 

1911  State  aid  for  medical  inspection  in  public  and  private 

schools. 
Board  of  Education  to  approve  standards  for  sanitation. 

1912  Post-graduate    department    of    education    in    Brown 

University. 
State  aid  for  industrial  vocational  education. 

1913  Textile  school  at  School  of  Design. 
Special  assistance  for  rural  schools. 


EXTENSION   AND   IMPROVEMENT.  271 

1914  Minimum  school  year  36  weeks. 

State  inspector  of  high  schools  appointed.  Standards 
adopted. 

1915  Provision  for  expert  supervision  for  all  towns. 

School  committees  have  power  to  consolidate  schools 
and  provide  transportation.  (The  law  previously 
limited  the  power  to  schools  of  less  than  12  in  average 
attendance.) 

1916  Age  and  employment  certificate  law  perfected. 

1917  Children  must  attend  school  to  16  years  unless  employed. 
Physical  education. 

Dental  inspection. 

School  committees  control  repair  and  equipment  of 
school  buildings. 

Summer  session  at  Normal  School. 

Rhode  Island  accepted  Federal  aid  for  vocational  educa- 
tion. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  FINANCE. 


Public  school  finance  may  mean  either  financing  of  public 
schools,  or  public  financing  of  schools,  whether  the  latter  are 
public  or  private  institutions.  In  this  chapter  the  term  is  used 
in  both  senses — to  cover  state  support  of  education — for  the 
state  is  as  truly  supporting  education  when  it  grants  exemption 
from  taxes  or  other  privileges  as  when  it  appropriates  money. 

With  the  development  of  civic  consciousness  and  recognition 
that  provision  for  public  education  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant functions,  if  not  the  most  essential  function,  of  the 
state,  the  burden  of  supporting  schools  has  rested  almost  uni- 
versally on  general  taxation.  In  Rhode  Island  school  revenues 
derived  from  all  other  sources  are  less  than  one  per  centum  of 
total  expenditures  of  public  school  money,  in  contrast  with  the 
earlier  practice,  which  supplemented  revenue  derived  from 
special  sources  by  general  taxation,  only  when  the  former  proved 
insufficient.  Except  in  1835,  until  1840  the  public  school  money 
distributed  by  the  state  was  derived  from  special  sources;  from 
1840  to  1859  state  school  money  was  in  large  part  derived  from 
special  sources. 

This  chapter  will  deal  first  with  exemption  from  taxation  as  a 
method  of  aiding  schools;  secondly,  with  special  sources  of 
school  revenue,  including  auction  and  lottery  duties,  the  United 
States  deposit  fund,  registry  and  poll  taxes,  dog  licenses,  tuition 
and  fines,  and,  thirdly,  of  the  manner  in  which  school  money  is 
appropriated,  apportioned,  distributed  and  expended.  In- 
cidentally the  correlations  between  school  finance  and  school 
policy  will  be  pointed  out. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  273 

TAX  EXEMPTION. 

Brown  University, — The  first  school  legislation  enacted  by 
the  colonial  General  Assembly  was  the  charter  granted  in  1764 
to  the  "trustees  and  fellows  of  the  college  or  university  in 
the  English  Colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions," named  Rhode  Island  College  first,  and  subsequently 
Brown  University.  The  charter  provided  that  "the  college 
estate,  the  estates,  persons  and  families  of  the  president  and 
professors,  for  the  time  being,  lying  and  being  within  this 
colony,  with  the  persons  of  the  tutors  and  students,  during  their 
residence  at  the  college,  shall  be  freed  and  exempt  from  all 
taxes,"  jury  service  and  military  service  except  in  case  of  in- 
vasion. In  1863  the  university  consented  to  an  amendment  to 
its  charter  limiting  the  exemption  of  the  estates,  persons  and 
families  of  the  president  and  professors  to  $10,000  in  each 
instance.  The  charter  further  provided  that  "this  charter 
shall  be  construed,  reputed  and  adjudged  in  all  things  most 
favorable  in  the  benefit,  behoof  and  for  the  best  benefit  and 
behoof  of  the  said  trustees  and  fellows  and  their  successors,  so 
as  most  effectually  to  answer  the  valuable  ends  of  this  most 
useful  institution."  The  state,  through  its  courts,  has  given 
full  effect  to  the  exemption,  by  interpreting  it  in  such  manner 
as  to  include  not  only  the  land  and  buildings  actually  used  as 
part  of  the  university  plant,  but  also  property  held  by  way  of  in- 
vestment— even  real  estate  in  the  business  centre  of  Providence 
rented  for  general  business  purposes.-  Brown  University  vs. 
Granger,  19  R.  I.  704.  From  assessments  for  street  improve- 
ments under  the  betterment  act,  however,  the  university  was 
held  to  be  not  exempt.  In  the  matter  of  College  street,  8  R.  I. 
474.  The  endowments  of  the  university  exceed  $4,500,000,  all 
of  which,  with  the  land  and  buildings,  are  exempt.  The  value 
of  the  exemption  at  current  rates  of  taxation,  exceeds  $80,000 
annually. 


274  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

General  Exemption. — At  the  February  session  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  1769  a  general  law  was  passed  exempting  from 
taxation  "all  lands  and  other  real  estate  granted  or  purchased 
for  religious  uses  or  for  the  uses  of  schools  within  this  colony." 
In  the  Digests  of  1798  and  1822  the  language  of  the  statute 
was  practically  similar:  "All  estates,  real  or  personal,  granted 
or  appropriated  to  religious  uses  or  to  the  use  of  schools  and 
seminaries  of  learning  within  this  state  .  .  .  are  exempted 
from  taxation."  In  1829  tax  exemption  was  limited  to  build- 
ings and  land  actually  occupied  by  buildings  owned  by  incor- 
porated bodies,  thus:  "So  much  property  as  now  is  or  here- 
after may  be  invested  in  houses  for  public  religious  worship,  or  in 
houses  for  schools,  academies  and  colleges  established  or  owned 
by  any  town,  company  or  corporation,  and  the  land  on  which 
they  stand,  together  with  such  other  property,  as  now  is  or 
hereafter  may  be  specially  exempted  by  a  charter  granted  by 
the  General  Assembly  .  .  .  are  hereby  exempted  from 
taxation."  Thus  the  law  appeared  in  the  revision  of  1844,  and 
so  it  remained  until  1855. 

In  the  general  tax  law  of  1855  ta_x  exemption  of  land  was 
limited  to  three  acres,  but  in  May  of  the  same  year  the  limita- 
tion was  removed,  and  it  was  enacted  that  "  The  land  occupied 
by  the  buildings  for  schools,  academies  and  colleges  shall  be 
exempt  from  taxation  so  long  as  the  same  shall  be  occupied  and 
used  for  educational  purposes,  and  the  limitation  of  the  land  so 
occupied  and  used  to  a  quantity  not  exceeding  three  acres,  in 
the  18th  section  of  the  act  to  which  this  is  an  amendment,  is 
hereby  repealed :  Provided,  that  this  act  shall  not  be  so  con- 
strued as  to  exempt  from  taxation  any  property  that  is  leased 
to  or  occupied  by  persons  who  pay  rent  therefor  for  the  use  or 
support  of  any  school,  academy  or  college."  The  same  act 
exempted  a  trust  fund  under  the  will  of  Nicholas  Campbell  "so 
long  as  the  interest  of  the  same  shall  be  applied  to  the  education 
of  indigent  children"  in  Warren.  In  1856  a  special  act  ex- 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  275 

empted  a  legacy  under  the  will  of  Joseph  Smith  of  Warren,  the 
income  of  which  was  devoted  to  paying  teachers'  salaries. 
Subsequently  all  special  endowments  of  similar  sort  were 
exempted  by  general  law. 

In  1857  exemption  was  made  even  more  liberal  by  striking  out 
the  proviso  in  the  act  of  1855.  Property  exempt  included 
"houses  for  schools,  academies  and  colleges  and  all  the  appur- 
tenances thereto  belonging,  owned  by  any  town,  company  or 
corporation,  and  the  land  used  in  connection  therewith,  so.  far 
as  the  same  is  held,  occupied  and  used  for,  and  the  rent  and 
profits  thereof  applied  to  .  .  .  educational  purposes;  alms- 
houses  and  public  libraries  .  .  .  except  that  almshouse 
estates  belonging  to  the  town  shall  be  subject  to  taxation 
for  school  purposes  in  the  school  districts  in  which  they  are 
situated." 

The  Acts  of  1855. — Had  the  close  restriction  of  exemption  in 
the  first  act  of  1855  been  a  separate  and  isolated  enactment, 
instead  of  one  feature  of  a  general  law  regulating  taxation,  in 
which  it  was  the  18th  section  —  a  law  that  the  Providence 
Journal  in  its  summary  of  legislation  at  the  close  of  the  session 
described  as  mainly  a  codification  of  existing  law — one  need 
scarcely  hesitate  to  attribute  it,  as  does  Stokes,  to  the  country- 
wide bitter  sectarian  controversy  then  raging,  with  the  dis- 
tinctly public  school,  the  quasi-public  school  of  the  incorporated 
church  society  partly  supported  by  public  school  money,  and 
the  Catholic  parochial  schools,  in  some  states  claimants  for  public 
school  money,  constituting  a  major  issue.  Though  the  con- 
nection, in  the  printed  record,  between  legislation  and  con- 
temporaneous religious  and  political  conflict  is  not  clear,  one 
cannot  ignore  the  opening  of  two  Catholic  schools  in  1851  and 
another  in  1855;  the  withdrawal  of  Catholic  children  from  the 
public  schools  in  1852  and  1853,  with'  its  marked  effect  on 
attendance  records ;  the  compulsory  attendance  measures  that 
failed  of  passage  by  the  General  Assembly  in  1853;  the  charge 


276  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

of  the  Providence  Journal  in  1853  that  the  Democratic  party 
planned  to  divide  the  public  school  money  betwixt  public  and 
parochial  schools;  the  voluminous  discussion  of  the  sectarian 
school  question  reprinted  at  large  in  the  School  Reports  in  1853 
and  1854;  the  measure  conferring  visitorial  and  inquisitorial 
powers  with  reference  to  private  schools  upon  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  which  was  indefinitely  postponed  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  in  1855;  the  alliance  of  the  dominant 
Whig  party  with  the  American  or  Know  Nothing  party  in  1854, 
and  the  triumph  of  the  Know  Nothings  in  Rhode  Island  in  1855, 
as  elements  in  the  social  environment  likely  to  affect  public 
action.  The  first  law  of  1855  limited  the  tax  exemptions  of  all 
private  schools;  the  reaction  from  Know  Nothingism  to  prin- 
ciples of  more  liberal  democracy  was  assisted  by  the  rallying  of 
friends  of  education,  and  the  critical  conflict  for  and  against 
exemption  of  parochial  schools  was  postponed  by  the  legislation 
of  May,  1855,  and  1857  for  nearly  a  generation. 

Exemption  Becomes  a  Religious  Question. — A  parochial  school 
was  opened  in  Woonsocket  in  1860,  an  academy  and  a  school  in 
Providence  in  1867,  and  four  academies  in  1872.  In  1870 
exemption  of  property  held  for  religious  purposes  was  limited 
to  $20,000.  In  1875  the  subject  of  tax  exemption  was  investi- 
gated by  a  committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  which  held  four 
public  hearings.  For  exemption  appeared,  among  others, 
Bishop  Hendricken  of  the  Roman  Catholic  diocese  of  Provi- 
dence, Bishop  Clarke  of  the  Episcopal  diocese  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  President  Robinson  of  Brown  University.  Strong  oppo- 
sition to  exemption  of  any  sort  was  voiced,  and  the  committee, 
which  was  hostile  to  exemption,  reported  a  compromise  rec- 
ommendation exempting  buildings,  but  no  land.  The  General 
Assembly  rejected  the  recommendation,  but  limited  the  exemp- 
tion of  schools  to  free  public  schools,  and  of  churches  to  buildings 
and  the  land  surrounding  the  same  to  the  extent  of  not  exceeding 
one  acre.  The  law  follows : 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  277 

"The  following  property,  and  no  other,  shall  be  exempt 
from  taxation:  Buildings  for  free  public  schools,  buildings 
for  religious  worship  and  the  land  on  which  they  stand  and 
immediately  surrounding  the  same  to  an  extent  not  exceeding 
one  acre,  so  far  as  said  buildings  and  lands  are  occupied  and 
used  exclusively  for  religious  or  educational  purposes;  .  .  . 
the  property,  real  and  personal,  held  for  or  by  any  incorporated 
library  society,  or  any  free  public  library  or  any  free  public 
library  society,  so  far  as  the  said  property  shall  be  held  ex- 
clusively for  library  purposes ;  .  .  .  any  fund  given  or  held 
for  the  purpose  of  public  education.  .  .  ."  Almshouses  were 
exempted  as  in  the  earlier  acts,  and  the  tribal  lands  of  the 
Narragansett  Indians  were  exempt;  and  with  them  land  held  in 
fee  by  members  of  the  tribe  were  exempt  from  taxation  'for 
school  purposes. 

What  was  the  meaning  of  "free  public  school"  ?  The  Supreme 
Court,  in  1878,  held  that  "free  public  schools",  exempted  from 
taxation,  meant  only  the  schools  which  "  are  established,  main- 
tained and  regulated  under  the  statute  laws  of  the  state." 
Hence  realty  held  by  a  religious  corporation  and  used  by  eccle- 
siastics to  furnish  gratuitious  instruction  in  parochial  schools, 
was  not  relieved  from  taxation.  St.  Joseph's  Church  vs. 
Assessors,  12  R.  I.  19.  In  1883  the  court  held  that  a  building 
used  for  religious  purposes  is  exempt  from  taxation,  although 
used  for  educational  purposes,  so  long  as  the  use  is  merely 
incidental  or  occasional,  or  so  long  as  the  use,  if  habitual,  is 
purely  permissive  and  voluntary  and  does  not  interfere  with  the 
use  for  religious  purposes,  there  being  no  alienation  of  the  build- 
ing in  whole  or  in  part  for  educational  uses,  as,  for  example,  by 
lease.  St.  Mary's  Church  vs.  Tripp,  14  R.  I.  307. 

General  Exemption  Restored. — In  1894  a  general  law  exempted 
parochial  and  private  schools  not  conducted  for  profit,  and  the 
land  surrounding  them  to  an  extent  not  exceeding  one  acre,  so 
far  as  the  same  is  used  exclusively  for  educational  purposes. 
There  were  at  that  time  27  schools  and  academies  in  the  state 
conducted  and  maintained  under  Catholic  Church  auspices. 


278  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

The  educational  exemptions  under  the  present  law  are  these : 

"Buildings  for  free  public  schools;  buildings  for  religious 
worship  and  the  land  upon  which  they  stand  and  immediately 
surrounding  the  same,  so  far  as  said  buildings  and  land  are 
occupied  and  used  exclusively  for  religious  or  educationl 
purposes,*  the  buildings  and  personal  estate  owned  by  any 
corporation  used  for  a  school,  academy  or  seminary  of  learning, 
and  the  land  upon  which  said  buildings  stand  and  immediately 
surrounding  the  same  to  an  extent  not  exceeding  one  acre,  so 
far  as  the  same  is  used  exclusively  for  educational  purposes,  but 
no  property  or  estate  whatever  shall  hereafter  be  exempt  from 
taxation  hi  any  case  where  any  part  of  the  income  or  profits 
thereof  or  of  the  business  carried  on  thereon  is  divided  among 
its  owners  or  stockholders;  .  .  .  the  property,  real  and 
personal,  held  for  or  by  any  incorporated  library,  society,  or  any 
free  public  library  or  any  free  public  library  society,  so  far  as 
said  property  shall  be  held  exclusively  for  library  purposes ;  . 

.  .  and  any  fund  given  or  held  for  the  purpose  of  public 
education." 

The  range  of  the  variation  of  tax  exemption  of  property  held 
and  used  for  school  purposes  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

Land  and  other  real  estate,  1769  to  1798. 

All  estates,  real  and  personal,  1798  to  1829. 

Buildings  and  land  actually  occupied  by  them,  1829  to  1855. 

Buildings  and  land  not  exceeding  three  acres,  1855. 

Buildings  and  land  actually  occupied,  but  no  land  held  as  an 
investment,  1855  to  1857. 

Buildings  and  land  occupied  or  yielding  an  income  devoted 
exclusively  to  education,  1857  to  1876. 

No  exemption  save  for  free  public  schools,  1876  to  1894. 

Buildings  and  land  occupied  by  them,  not  exceeding  one  acre, 
of  schools  not  conducted  for  profit,  1894 . 

Against  the  reduction  of  tax  revenue  which  a  municipality 
incurs  through  exempting  schools  from  taxation  may  be  set  the 
calculable  gain  realized  through  the  assumption  by  private 
institutions  of  the  expense  of  educating  the  municipality's 
children,  and  the  incalculable  gain  arising  from  an  increased 
number  of  educational  institutions  and  educational  agencies. 

*A  building  used  as  a  dormitory  for  teachers  is  not  exempt.  In  r«  City  of  Pawtucket, 
24  R.  I.  86. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  279 

It  is  scarcely  beyond  the  province  of  a  history  of  public  educa- 
tion to  point  out  also  that  the  exemption  and  truancy  laws  of 
the  state  effectually  place  parochial  and  private  schools,  in  v 
essential  matters,  under  supervision  of  state  and  municipal 
school  officers.  On  penalty  of  forfeiting  tax  exemption,  a  by 
no  means  inconsiderable  item  in  school  budgets,  these  schools 
are  open  to  visit  and  inspection  by  state  and  city  or  town  school 
officers.  Attendance  at  them  is  accepted  in  lieu  of  attendance 
at  free  public  schools  only  when  courses  of  study  and  standards 
of  instruction  are  approved  by  local  school  committees  as  sub- 
stantially equivalent  to  public  school  standards. 

AUCTION  DUTIES  AND  LOTTERIES. 

The  public  school  act  of  1828  set  apart  for  school  support  all 
money  paid  into  the  general  treasury  by  managers  of  lotteries 
or  their  agents,  and  by  auctioneers  for  duties  accruing  to  the 
state.  Out  of  the  revenue  thus  segregated,  $10,000  annually 
was  to  be  apportioned  for  distribution  to  aid  free  public  schools 
in  the  several  towns,  and  the  surplus,  if  any,  was  to  be  aqcumu- 
lated  as  a  permanent  school  fund.  The  history  of  the  latter  in 
detail  is  told  in  another  chapter. 

Auction  Duties. — Auction  duties  continued  to  be  a  part  of 
school  revenue  until  1845,  when  the  Barnard  act  omitted  them. 
Nevertheless,  auction  duties  were  included  in  the  estimate  of 
misapplication  of  the  permanent  school  fund  made  by  the  com- 
mittee of  investigation  in  1851,  and  auction  duties  were  covered 
into  the  permanent  school  fund  by  state  treasurers  from  1852 
to  1857,  although  there  was,  from  1845  to  1857,  no  law  requiring 
this  disposition  of  them.  The  Revised  Statutes  of  1857  made 
auction  duties  thereafter  the  principal  source  of  increase  of  the 
permanent  school  fund.  The  annual  revenue  varies  from  year 
to  year,  and  averages  approximately  $900  annually. 

Lotteries  Forbidden  and  Revived. — The  General  Assembly,  hi 
1732-33,  resolved  that  "whereas,  there  have  been  set  up  within 


280  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

this  government  certain  unlawful  games  called  lotteries,  whereby 
unwary  people  have  been  led  into  foolish  expense  of  money, 
which  may  tend  to  the  great  hurt  of  this  government  if  not 
timely  prevented,  for  remedy  thereof,"  no  lottery  after  April  30, 
1733,  shall  be  drawn.  Without  repealing  its  earlier  resolution, 
the  General  Assembly  in  1744  authorized  a  lottery  of  £15,000 
to  build  a  bridge  over  the  "  Wobosset  river"  in  Providence,  thus 
opening  a  century  in  which  lotteries  were  a  most  important 
method  of  funding  public,  quasi-public  and  even  private  under- 
takings. Bridges,  roads,  streets,  churches,  courthouses  and 
schools  were  built  from  the  proceeds  of  lotteries;  debtors  and 
unfortunate  adventurers  were  relieved;  new  business  enterprises 
were  capitalized ;  educational  institutions  were  encouraged,  and 
the  state  itself  derived  an  income,  first  from  profit-sharing  in 
lotteries,  then  from  taxation  of  lotteries,  and  finally  from  out- 
right sale  of  franchises  to  conduct  lotteries.  The  story  of 
Rhode  Island  lotteries  has  been  told  by  the  late  John  H.  Stiness, 
some  time  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rhode  Island, 
in  "A  Century  of  Lotteries  in  Rhode  Island."  The  discussion 
here  is  confined  to  educational  interests,  and  in  that  respect  is 
somewhat  more  detailed. 

Lotteries  for  Education. — The  first  lottery  for  an  educational 
purpose  was  granted  in  1759,  and  regranted  in  1760,  to  aid  in 
replacing  a  library  destroyed  by  fire  in  the  Colony  House  at 
Providence  in  1758,  with  the  condition  that  the  library  there- 
after should  be  accessible  to  members  of  the  General  Assembly. 

Other  lotteries  for  educational  purposes  were  granted  as 
follows : 

1767.  To  complete  the  parsonage  of  the  Baptist  Church  at 
Warren,  because  "Dr.  Manning  hath  now  under  his  care  several 
pupils  to  be  educated  in  the  liberal  arts,  who  cannot  be  accom- 
modated in  the  said  house  in  its  present  condition."  To  the 
Acts  and  Resolves  of  the  General  Assembly  we  are  indebted  for 
this  glimpse  of  the  preparatory  school  for  Rhode  Island  College, 
afterward  located  at  Providence  and  called  the  University 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  281 

Grammar  School,  which  Dr.  Manning  established  preliminary 
to  the  opening  of  the  college. 

1774.  To  the  inhabitants  of  East  Greenwich,  to  raise  money 
to  build  a  schoolhouse  in  the  town.  In  1780  the  amount  of 
money  to  be  raised  was  increased,  in  order  to  provide  for  two 
schoolhouses. 

1774.  To  the  committee  of  the  "Baptist  or  Antipaedobaptist 
Society,"  to  build  a  meetinghouse  "for  the  worship  of  Almighty 
God  and  holding  the  public  commencements  in."  Rhode  Island 
College  had  been  removed  to  Providence.  Dr.  Manning,  its 
first  President,  had  become  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
thus  early  dedicated  to  use  with  the  university. 

1795.  To  36  citizens  of  Newport,  as  trustees,  to  rebuild 
Long  Wharf,  build  a  hotel,  and  apply  the  rents  and  profits  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  public  school  for  the  children  of  Newport. 
Simeon  Potter  of  Swansea  thereafter  conveyed  to  the  trustees 
his  house  and  two  lots  of  land  on  Easton's  Point  for  a  public 
school.     The  school  was  opened  in  1814  for  poor  children,  and 
continued  until  merged  into  the  free  school  system.     The  Long 
Wharf  Association  has  built  from  its  profits  two  public  schools 
for  Newport. 

1796.  To    Rhode    Island    College,    "for   cogent    reasons 
assigned,"  to  raise  not  exceeding  $25,000  for  use  of  the  college. 
In  connection  with  this  lottery,  President  Jonathan  Maxcy 
issued  a  special  appeal  to  the  friends  of  the  college  and  patrons 
of  literature  as  follows :     "The  committee  for  directing  the  man- 
agement of  Rhode  Island  College  lottery,  having  received  inform- 
ation that  a  larger  number  of  tickets  has  been  returned  than  was 
expected,  and  not  having  obtained  information  respecting  the  sale 
of  many  sent  abroad,  and  wishing  to  secure  the  laudable  object  of 
the  lottery  in  a  more  ample  manner  than  present  circumstances 
authorize,  have  suspended  the  drawing  for  a  short  time  and 
adopted  such  measures  for  the  sale  of  tickets  as  they  judge  will 
be  effectual  and  enable  them  speedily  and  principally  to  accom- 
plish the  business  of  the  lottery.     The  friends  of  the  college 
and  patrons  of  literature  are  requested  to  favor  the  corpora- 
tion with  their  friendly  assistance  on  this  occasion." 

1797.  To  aid  Bristol  Academy. 

1801.     To  build  an  academy  at  South  Kingstown. 
1803.     To  aid  Washington  Academy. 

1803.  To  aid  Warren  Academy. 

1804.  To  build  a  schoolhouse  and  meeting  house  near  Cory 
pond,  East  Greenwich. 

1804.  To  build  a  schoolhouse  and  meeting  house  at  Charles- 
town. 


282  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

1805.  To  finish  a  meeting  house  and  schoolhouse  at  Hopkin- 
ton  City. 

1805.     To  aid  Frenchtown  Seminary. 

1805.  To    build    a    schoolhouse    at    Four   Corners,  North 
Kingstown. 

1806.  To  raise  $3000  for  Redwood  Library,  Newport. 
1808.     To  aid  an  academy  in  North  Providence  on  Smith- 
field  pike. 

1808.     To  the  Smithfield  Academy  Society. 

1810.  To  Smithfield  Academy. 

1811.  To  Brown  University,  to  build  a  house  for  the  steward 
and  promote  various  objects  of  the  institution. 

1812.  To  the  Greene  Academy  in  Smithfield. 

In  1797  counterfeiting  lottery  tickets  was  made  a  crime 
rendering  the  offender  "liable  to  suffer  pains  of  death,  without 
benefit  of  clergy,  with  confiscation  of  all  and  singular  the  real 
and  personal  estate  of  the  offender"  for  use  of  the  state.  In 
1806  a  law  forbade  lotteries  not  authorized  by  the  General 
Assembly,  but  this  law,  intended  to  bar  foreign  lotteries,  was 
repealed  at  a  later  session  in  the  same  year.  The  General 
Assembly  received  a  protest  against  lotteries  in  1813.  Venders 
of  foreign  lottery  tickets  were  required  to  take  out  licenses,  at 
$100  per  annum,  by  act  of  1816,  and  in  1822  the  General  Assem- 
bly forbade  private  lotteries  put  forth  without  its  consent. 
After  a  lull  of  five  years,  beginning  in  1812,  the  following  lot- 
teries for  educational  purposes  were  granted: 

1817.     To  Scituate  and  Foster  Academy. 

1823.  To  the  inhabitants  of  Old  Warwick,  to  erect  houses 
of  worship  and  for  the  education  of  youth. 

1825.  To  Redwood  Library,  Newport,  increasing  the  amount 
to  be  raised  under  the  grant  of  1806. 

1825.     To  Newport,  for  the  support  of  public  schools. 

1825.     To  build  a  schoolhouse  in  Richmond. 

1829.  To  James  Stevens,  to  aid  in  publishing  a  map  of  the 
state. 

1830.  To  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society. 

1830.  To  aid  the  Providence  Bar  Library.  This  library 
was  afterward  taken  over  by  the  state,  and  formed  a  nucleus 
for  the  present  Rhode  Island  Law  Library. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  283 

1837.  To  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  conditional 
upon  payment  of  $4000  to  the  school  fund.  This  grant  was 
cancelled  subsequently. 

Lotteries  for  Revenue. — The  colony  derived  its  earliest  income 
from  a  lottery  from  the  profits  of  a  grant  to  Joseph  Fox  in 
1748-9  which  yielded  £406  14s.  8d.  The  ordinary  form  of 
early  franchise  reserved  to  the  colony  the  profits  in  excess  of  a 
specified  amount.  In  1760  special  court  procedure  was  author- 
ized to  aid  proprietors  of  lotteries  in  enforcing  collections.  The 
lottery  legislation  included  several  acts  calling  upon  grantees 
to  render  accounts,  close  their  accounts  and  pay  over  profits, 
and  appointing  committees  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  par- 
ticular lotteries.  This  general  statement  applies  with  equal 
force  to  educational  and  non-educational  lotteries.  Among  the 
educational  lotteries  that  were  investigated  were  those  granted 
to  Smithfield  Academy  in  1810  and  to  Scituate  and  Foster 
Academy  in  1817.  Other  entries  on  the  records  are  sufficient 
to  warrant  suspicion  that  petitions  for  charters  for  academies, 
in  some  instances,  were  merely  preliminary  to  petitions  to  be 
filed  subsequently  for  lottery  franchises,  and  that  the  seemingly 
quickened  interest  in  higher  education  in  several  sections  of  the 
state  was  stimulated  by  and  was  a  cloak  for  a  deeper  interest  in 
legalized  gambling.  The  foregoing  statement  is  made  without 
any  intention  of  imputing  base  motives  to  the  many  sincere 
friends  of  education  who  made  use  of  lotteries  as  the  easiest  way 
to  secure  financial  assistance  for  their  projects. 

A  State  Monopoly. — From  profit-sharing  the  state  changed  its 
policy  to  taxing  lotteries  upon  the  gross  amount  of  sales  of 
tickets.  In  1830  the  lottery  tax  was  raised  from  one  to  ten  per 
centum.  This  legislation  had  the  effect  of  banishing  from  the 
field  of  competition  all  save  professional  lottery  dealers;  all 
grants  after  1830  were  conditioned  upon  the  payment  of  specific 
amounts  into  the  state  treasury.  These  lotteries  were  des- 
ignated School  Fund  Lotteries,  because  they  were  granted  for 


284  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

the  purpose  of  raising  school  money,  and  because  their  proceeds, 
under  the  school  act  of  1828,  accrued  to  the  school  fund.  The 
state  itself  thus  practically  monopolized  the  lottery  business. 
Lotteries  were  drawn  by  state  officers  in  state  offices — to  guar- 
anty fair  dealing  for  the  purchasers  of  tickets.  Three  con- 
cessionaires were  found  in  1831,  two  each  in  1832  and  1833,  at 
$10,000  each.  A  lottery  granted  in  1834  for  $10,000  was  not 
taken  by  the  dealer,  but  in  1835  a  lottery  to  continue  four  years 
and  yield  $10,000  per  annum  was  granted,  and  in  1839  renewed 
for  five  years  at  $9000  per  annum.  The  movement  of  a  century 
thus  had  reached  its  climax — and  also  its  culmination. 

Moral  Aspects. — Readers  who,  experience  difficulty  in  viewing 
the  history  of  lotteries  and  education  in  Rhode  Island  without 
the  prejudice  which  twentieth  century  standards  of  morality 
inevitably  arouse,  should  consider  the  extent  to  which  morality 
is  relative  and  moral  questions  are  ultimately  social  questions. 
Rhode  Island  was  not  precociously,  or  conspicuously,  or  noto- 
riously bad;  the  state  was  the  fourth  to  abolish  lotteries.  In 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  lotteries  were  sanctioned 
by  church  and»  press,  while  to  the  names  of  two  early  Presidents 
of  Brown  University  already  mentioned  might  be  added  those 
of  Moses  Brown,  Stephen  Hopkins  and  others,  some  of  them 
the  most  influential  and  prominent  Rhode  Islanders  of  the  period, 
as  participants  in  the  management  of  lotteries  conducted  for 
the  many  meritorious  purposes  disclosed  in  the  grants — educa- 
tional, religious,  and  for  public  improvement.  To  the  masses 
speculation  in  lottery  tickets  was  preferable  to  paying  taxes. 
There  were,  however,  reformers  who  realized  the  loathsome 
rottenness  of  the  system  and  who  strove  to  combat  it.  Opposed 
to  the  reformers  were  the  professional  dealers,  the  friends  of 
projects  benefiting  by  lotteries,  and  finally  sincere  supporters  of 
the  public  school  system,  who  feared  that  the  abolition  of 
lotteries  and  the  loss  of  revenue  therefrom  might  endanger  the 
schools. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  285 

At  various  times  the  question  of  abolishing  lotteries  was  pre- 
sented to  the  General  Assembly,  and  from  time  to  time  legisla- 
tion intended  to  correct  incidental  evils  was  enacted.  In  May, 
1834,  Elisha  R.  Potter,  father  of  Commissioner  Elisha  R. 
Potter,  moved  in  the  General  Assembly  that  a  committee  be 
appointed  to  take  into  consideration  the  prevailing  lottery 
system  and  to  ascertain  what  had  been  done  on  the  subject  in 
other  states,  with  a  view  to  the  adoption  of  some  measures 
putting  an  end  to  the  sale  of  lottery  tickets.  He  declared  that 
the  purchase  of  lottery  tickets  was  a  species  of  gambling,  and 
that,  unwilling  as  he  was  to  submit  to  a  land  tax,  yet  he  would 
pay  his  proportion  of  a  land  tax  to  supply  the  funds  raised 
by  the  lottery  system,  rather  than  have  this  system  con- 
tinued. The  committee  was  appointed,  and  reported  in  June, 
1834,  favorable  to  abolition  of  lotteries,  with  a  resolution  com- 
manding the  Attorney  General  to  draft  a  suitable  act.  The 
report  was  laid  on  the  table.  On  the  same  day  a  bill  to  grant  a 
lottery  was  reported,  and  likewise  laid  on  the  table,  but  at  a 
later  date  the  lottery  was  granted.* 

In  the  constitutional  convention  of  1842  a  propostition  to 
abolish  lotteries  was  debated.  There  the  most  valiant  defender 
of  the  system  was  Wilkins  Updike,  who  in  1843,  made  the 
speech  and  presented  the  resolution  that  resulted  in  the  calling 
of  Henry  Barnard  to  Rhode  Island.  His  plea  was  for  the 
support  of  schools.  But  the  financial  necessities  of  the  state 
had  been  relieved  since  1834,  and  the  income  of  the  United 
States  deposit  fund  was  already  furnishing  a  splendid  endow- 
ment for  the  public  school  system.  The  convention  was  im- 
pressed by  the  exposure  of  the  evils  of  lotteries,  and  submitted 
to  the  people  a  constitution  that  forbade  future  lottery  grants. 
The  General  Assembly  in  1844  adopted  supplementary  legisla- 
tion, forbidding  the  sale  of  lottery  tickets. 

*The  General  Assembly,  in  1840,  condemned  lotteries. 


286  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

Besides  the  lotteries  granted  for  specific  educational  purposes 
lotteries  had  yielded  from  1828  to  1839  an  annual  income  for 
the  support  of  schools  averaging  $10,000,  and  enough  in  excess 
thereof,  with  the  receipts  from  1839  to  1844,  to  insure  a  per- 
manent school  fund  of  over  $100,000.  In  large  part,  however, 
the  money  so  easily  acquired  was  diverted  from  the  permanent 
school  fund  and  applied  to  other  purposes  of  the  state. 

THE  UNITED  STATES  DEPOSIT  FUND. 

The  Federal  tariff  law  of  1833,  a  compromise  measure,  pro- 
duced a  revenue  far  in  excess  of  current  needs  of  the  Federal 
Government.  After  the  national  debt  had  been  paid  off,  Con- 
gress, by  act  of  June,  1836,  voted  to  distribute  the  treasury 
surplus  over  $5,000,000  to  the  several  states  as  loans,  to  be 
returned  to  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  upon  demand. 
Three  installments  were  distributed. 

Perception  of  An  Opportunity. — Forecasting  the  approaching 
session  of  the  General  Assembly,  the  Morning  Courier,  of  which 
William  G.  Lamed  was  publisher,  suggested  in  an  editorial  on 
October  25,  1836,  that  the  income  of  the  deposit  money  should 
be  applied  to  the  support  of  public  schools.  The  editor  esti- 
mated the  state's  share  in  the  public  money  at  $272,000,  "which 
if  judiciously  invested,  will  produce  at  least  $16,000  annually, 
which  added  to  the  school  fund,  would  in  a  few  years  produce  an 
income  sufficient  to  maintain  free  schools  in  every  town  in  the 
state  during  the  whole  year."  He  advocated  the  appointment 
of  a  commission  to  invest  the  fund,  "who  should  be  judicious 
business  men,"  and  continued:  "These  hints  are  thrown  out 
in  the  hope  that  they  may  meet  the  eye  of  some  of  the  members 
of  the  Assembly,  that  the  subject  may  be  thought  of  pre- 
paratory to  its  consideration  next  week.  We  do  not  mean  to 
be  understood  as  speaking  in  the  language  of  dictation,  but  only 
to  call  to  the  reflection  of  the  members  a  subject  upon  which 
they  will  be  called  to  act." 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  287 

The  General  Assembly,  at  the  October  session,  1836,  author- 
ized the  General  Treasurer  to  receive  Rhode  Island's  allotment 
of  the  public  money.  In  the  House  of  Representatives 
Thomas  Wilson  Dorr,  representing  Providence,  a  member  of  the 
committee  on  education — the  first  committee  on  education  of 
which  there  is  mention  in  the  Schedules — presented  a  resolution 
providing  that  the  income  from  the  deposit  fund  should  be 
applied  exclusively  to  the  support  of  public  schools.  This, 
with  another  resolution,  presented  by  George  Curtis  of  Provi- 
dence, directing  that  the  public  money  be  deposited  in  the 
incorporated  banks  of  the  state  at  not  less  than  five  per  cent, 
interest,  were  referred  to  a  special  committee.  Both  resolu- 
tions were  reported  favorably,  but  there  was  opposition  to  both 
in  the  House.  The  test  vote  came  upon  an  amendment  offered 
as  a  substitute  for  both  resolutions,  providing  for  the  division 
of  the  public  money  amongst  the  several  towns.  The  amend- 
ment was  defeated  35  to  29,  and  the  Curtis-Dorr  resolutions 
were  adopted  unanimously. 

Rhode  Island's  share  in  the  surplus  revenue  amounted  to 
$382,335.30.  The  first  two  installments,  $127,445.10  each, 
were  deposited  in  state  banks,  and  of  the  third  installment 
$127,445.03  was  deposited,  leaving  a  balance  of  seven  cents  in 
the  treasury.  Though  subsequent  reports  of  the  commis- 
ioners  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  investing  the  fund  named 
$382,335.30  as  the  total,  the  first  account  of  a  state  treasurer 
with  the  fund,  that  of  Stephen  Cahoone  in  1844,  carried  the 
fund  as  $382,335.23,  an  error  due  probably  to  neglect  of  the 
seven-cent  balance.  The  error  was  repeated  in  later  accounts, 
and  was  not  corrected  until  1858. 

A  Financial  Problem. — Banks  found  the  state  account  not 
altogether  profitable  when  carried  as  a  deposit  at  five  per  cent, 
interest.  To  provide  for  reinvestment  of  money  returned  by 
the  banks,  the  commission  was  authorized  in  1839  to  loan  to 
towns  money  from  the  fund  to  be  used  exclusively  for  educa- 


288  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

tional  purposes,  or  to  invest  it  in  the  capital  stock  of  banks. 
Loans  to  towns  were  limited  to  the  town's  share  in  the  fund  as 
determined  by  the  ratio  of  apportionment  of  school  money. 
In  1841  the  law  was  further  modified  to  permit  loans  to  towns 
for  any  purpose,  on  bonds  yielding  five  per  cent,  interest  and 
maturing  in  not  more  than  five  years,  or  upon  thirty  days 
notice  on  the  call  of  the  state  treasurer.  Subsequently,  how- 
ever1, a  return  to  the  law  of  1839  was  made.  Thus  the  general 
policy  of  investing  the  fund  at  five  per  cent,  interest  was  main- 
tained, for  bank  stocks  as  a  rule  paid  better  than  five  per  cent, 
dividends. 

The  State  Borrows. — In  1840,  however,  the  state  inaugurated 
a  somewhat  different  policy,  although  it  still  recognized  its 
obligation  to  the  Federal  Government  as  a  merely  temporary 
custodian  of  the  deposit  fund.  In  January,  1840,  the  General 
Treasurer  was  authorized  to  borrow  $35,000  from  the  deposit 
fund,  to  pay  the  state's  debt  to  the  Globe  Bank,  the  act  stipu- 
lating that  the  loan  should  be  repaid  by  the  state  with  interest 
at  five  per  cent.  For  this  purpose  $29,526.49  was  withdrawn. 
In  June,  1842,  the  commissioners  were  directed  to  withdraw 
$50,000  from  the  banks  and  pay  it  into  the  treasury  for  use  of 
the  state,  "to  be  refunded  as  soon  as  may  be,  with  interest  at 
five  per  cent."  In  October  of  the  same  year  a  further  with- 
drawal of  $32,000  was  authorized,  but  only  $28,192.72  was 
actually  taken,  the  balance  of  the  $32,000  being  made  up  by 
$3807.28  received  from  the  Federal  Government  as  the  state's 
share  in  the  proceeds  of  sales  of  public  lands.  In  January,  1843, 
two  acts  authorized  the  further  withdrawal  of  $25,000.  The 
withdrawals  in  1842  and  1843,  amounting  to  $103,192.72,  or 
$107,000  if  the  public  land  money  be  included,  may  be  ascribed 
to  the  expenses  incurred  in  the  suppression  of  Thomas  Wilson 
Dorr's  movement  for  constitutional  reform,  presenting  the 
anomaly  of  use  of  a  fund  against  him  which  he  had  been  the 
leading  factor  in  preserving  in  1836.  In  June,  1843,  $10,000 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  289 

was  drawn  from  the  fund  to  be  applied  to  the  public  school 
appropriation,  and  the  commissioners  were  directed  to  make 
no  more  investments  of  money  returned  by  banks,  without 
order  from  the  General  Assembly.  In  June,  1844,  $468.75  was 
received  from  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  as  a  further 
share  in  the  proceeds  of  sales  of  public  lands,  and  was  covered 
into  the  general  treasury. 

Recapitulating:  The  state  received  $382,335.30  of  surplus 
revenue  of  the  United  States,  liable  to  recall  by  the  Federal 
Government,  and  $4276.03  from  the  sale  of  public  lands.  From 
the  deposit  fund  the  state  borrowed  $29,526.49  in  1840,  $78,- 
192.72  in  1842  and  $35,000  in  1843,  a  total  of  $142,719,21,  and 
the  state  was  further  indebted  to  the  fund  seven  cents  through 
an  error  in  accounting.  The  public  land  money  was  paid 
directly  into  the  state  treasury,  through  a  subterfuge  of  mar- 
shalling it  against  the  loan  authorized  in  1842,  and  without 
subterfuge  in  1844.  In  dealing  with  surplus  revenue  and  with 
the  public  land  money,  Treasurer  Cahoone  displayed  the  same 
policy  of  deliberate  disregard  of  any  obligation  of  the  state  that 
he  showed  in  his  dealings  with  the  permanent  school  fund. 
It  was  not  until  1858  that  the  General  Assembly  in  a  resolution 
announcing  its  discovery  that  the  public  land  money  had  been 
paid  into  the  general  treasury,  ordered  the  $4276.03  added  to 
the  amount  of  the  deposit  fund.  At  the  same  time  the  error 
of  seven  cents  in  earlier  accounting  was  rectified,  making  the 
total  amount  subject  to  account  $386,611.33.  The  act  of 
1858  was,  however,  merely  an  acknowledgment  of  indebted- 
ness; as  a  matter  of  accounting,  it  increased  the  state's  debt 
to  the  deposit  fund,  but  no  money  was  transferred  by  virtue 
of  the  act,  either  in  1858  or  when,  in  1859,  the  balance  of  the 
deposit  fund  was  ordered  credited  to  the  permanent  school  fund. 

Subsequent  borrowings  from  the  deposit  fund  were  as  follows: 
By  act  of  May,  1845,  $10,000;  by  act  of  January,  1849,  author- 
izing the  withdrawal  of  so  much  as  may  be  necessary  to  pay  the 


290  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

debt  due  the  Bank  of  North  America  and  the  expenses  and  orders 
of  the  Assembly,  provided  that  the  sum  so  withdrawn  shall  not 
exceed  $45,000,  $41,526.67;  in  1858,  $32,500.  In  1859  the 
state's  indebtedness  to  the  fund,  including  money  returned  to 
the  treasury  and  not  reinvested,  and  also  the  public  land  money 
was  $231,070.06.  The  balance,  $155,541.27,  was,  in  1859, 
ordered  credited  to  the  permanent  school  fund,  until  such  time 
as  the  Federal  Government  shall  recall  it.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  all  that  was  credited  was  the  stocks  and  bonds  held. 
Money  returned  by  banks  and  not  reinvested,  and  the  money 
balance  in  the  treasury  not  part  of  authorized  loans,  was  re- 
tained in  the  general  treasury.  Perhaps  the  act  of  January, 
1860,  by  which  the  general  treasury  balance,  $11,191.80,  was 
ordered  transferred  to  the  permanent  school  fund,  was  the 
result  of  an  effort  to  rectify  previous  dereliction. 

Income  of  the  Fund. — The  income  from  the  deposit  fund  was 
$1358.35  up  to  April  30,  1837,  and  for  six  fiscal  years  thereafter 
was  $17,676.24  in  1837-8,  $18,991.14  in  1838-9,  $17,084.27  in 
1839-40,  $19,295.99  in  1840-1,  $16,306.95  in  1841-2,  and 
$12,213.52  in  1842-3,  falling  thereafter  still  lower  as  the  prin- 
cipal was  diverted  into  state  loans.  Under  the  school  act  of 
1828,  appropriating  $10,000  annually  for  the  support  of  schools, 
and  the  act  of  1836,  applying  the  income  of  the  fund  to  the 
same  purpose,  $10,111.54  was  apportioned  in  1836,  $11,390.41 
in  1837,  $27,696.76  in  1838.  In  January,  1839,  a  revised  school 
law  fixed  the  annual  appropriation  at  $25,000,  the  revenue  to 
be  applied  being  the  income  of  the  deposit  fund,  the  balance  of 
$25,000  to  be  taken  from  the  general  treasury.  The  same  act 
ordered  revenue  from  lotteries  and  auctions  applied,  first  to 
payment  of  the  state's  debt  to  the  school  fund,  and  thereafter 
to  the  increase  of  the  school  fund.  The  immediate  effect  of  the 
act  of  1839  was  to  reduce  the  annual  school  appropriation, 
which  under  the  laws  of  1828  and  1836  would  have  been  $28,- 
991.14  in  1840,  $27,084.27  in  1841,  $29,295.99  in  1842,  $26,306.95 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  291 

in  1843;  but  ultimately  the  effect  of  the  act  of  1839  was  bene- 
ficial, because  it  maintained  the  appropriation  at  $25,000  in  the 
years  when  the  income  from  the  deposit  fund,  plus  $10,000, 
would  have  fallen  below  $25,000. 

The  state,  although  promising  repayment  with  interest  at 
five  per  cent.,  paid  neither  principal  nor  interest.  As  an  offset 
to  the  latter,  however,  may  be  placed  the  annual  appropriation, 
maintained  at  $25,000  under  the  act  of  1845,  raised  to  $35,000 
in  1850,  and  to  $50,000  in  1854,  at  which  figure  it  remained 
when  the  deposit  fund  as  a  separate  account  passed  from  the 
books  of  the  treasurer.  With  the  decreasing  return  from  the 
deposit  fund,  the  burden  of  supporting  public  education  shifted 
gradually  from  this  special  source  of  revenue  to  general  taxation, 
a  desirable  change,  inasmuch  as  public  responsibility  strengthens 
public  consciousness,  and  public  consciousness  of  responsibility 
is  an  important  factor  in  the  support  of  public  education. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  SCHOOL  REVENUE. 

The  remaining  sources  of  special  school  revenue  are  of  a 
different  type  from  those  already  discussed.  The  acts  of  1828, 
1836  and  1839  rested  the  support  of  public  schools  upon  special 
income,  supplementing  the  special  income  by  general  revenue 
only  when  the  former  proved  insufficient.  Registry  and  poll 
taxes,  dog  licenses  and  penalties  credited  to  the  school  account 
supplement  the  money  appropriated  from  general  revenue. 
Moreover,  these  taxes  are  not  collected  by  the  state  and  appor- 
tioned to  the  towns,  but  are  collected  by  the  towns,  and  applied 
to  school  support  under  the  laws  which  authorize  levy  and 
collection. 

Towns  and  cities  derive  the  larger  part  of  money  expended 
for  the  support  of  public  schools  from  general  taxes  levied  upon 
property  and  from  the  apportionment  of  state  appropriations. 
To  the  money  appropriated  by  the  town  or  city  and  the  money 
apportioned  by  the  state  are  added,  under  general  laws,  revenue 


292  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

derived  from  poll  taxes,  the  balance  of  receipts  from  dog  licenses 
after  deducting  damages  paid  for  injuries  inflicted  by  dogs 
upon  sheep,  lambs,  cattle,  horses,  hogs  and  fowl,  tuition  paid 
by  non-resident  pupils,  income  earned  by  property  held  in  trust 
for  public  education,  and  fines  levied  under  the  compulsory 
attendance  law. 

Registry  and  Poll  Taxes. — Poll  taxes  were  assessed  in  Rhode 
Island  before  1842,  but  the  application  of  poll  taxes  to  school 
support  began  with  the  Constitution  adopted  in  that  year, 
which  provided: 

"Every  male  native  citizen  of  the  United  States  .  .  .  whose 
name  shall  be  registered  ...  on  or  before  the  last  day 
of  December  in  the  year  next  preceding  the  time  of  his  voting, 
and  who  shall  show  by  legal  proof  that  he  has  for  and  within 
the  year  next  preceding  the  time  he  shall  offer  to  vote,  paid  a 
tax  or  taxes  assessed  against  him  in  any  town  or  city  in  this 
state,  to  the  amount  of  one  dollar  .  .  .  shall  have  a  right 
to  vote.  .  .  . 

"The  assessors  of  each  town  or  city  shall  annually  assess  upon 
every  person  whose  name  shall  be  registered  a  tax  of  one  dollar, 
or  such  sum  as  with  his  other  taxes  shall  amount  to  one  dollar, 
which  registry  tax  shall  be  paid  into  the  treasury  of  such  town 
or  city,  and  be  applied  to  the  support  of  public  schools  therein; 
but  no  compulsory  process  shall  issue  for  the  collection  of  any 
registry  tax.  .  .  ." 

The  tax  thus  levied  and  applied  to  school  support  was  known 
as  the  registry  tax.  In  June,  1844,  the  General  Assembly  per- 
fected the  law  by  passing  an  act  providing  that  town  treasurers 
should  pay  over  to  school  committees  for  support  of  public 
schools  all  money  received  from  the  registry  tax. 

The  registry  tax  was  a  purely  voluntary  tax,  payment  of 
which  was  assumed  by  the  citizen  who  wished  to  participate  in 
elections,  as  was  indicated  by  the  provision  which  forbade  the 
issuing  of  compulsory  process  to  enforce  collection,  and  by  the 
constitutional  provision  for  the  first  registration,  which  de- 
scribed the  registry  tax  as  a  voluntary  payment.  As  a  school 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.       .  293 

revenue  measure  the  registry  tax  was  defective  for  six  reasons: 
First,  it  was  assumed  voluntarily,  instead  of  being  levied  upon 
all  persons  who  might  become  eligible  to  vote;  second,  payment 
was  voluntary,  instead  of  compulsory;  third,  the  amount  of 
revenue  derived  from  it  varied  with  the  intensity  of  public 
interest  in  political  issues  and  not  with  the  needs  of  school  sup- 
port; fourth,  the  time  of  registration  and  payment,  December, 
was  too  remote  from  the  time  of  the  state  election,  April,  to  give 
to  the  revenue  full  advantage  of  an  interest  in  an  issue  which 
might  be  developed  in  the  hustings;  fifth,  only  native  born 
citizens  of  the  United  States  were  eligible  to  qualify  as  electors, 
excluding  naturalized  citizens;  sixth,  in  consequence  of  suffrage 
restriction,  the  potential  electorate  and  the  amount  of  the 
revenue  derived  from  the  registry  tax  did  not  keep  pace  with 
the  increase  of  70  per  cent,  in  population  in  the  20  years  from 
1840  to  1860,  recruited  largely  by  immigration  from  Europe. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  scientific  politics  and  school  admin- 
istration, combined,  the  registry  tax  law  as  a  school  measure 
was  defective  for  four  reasons:  First,,  it  contrasted  sharply 
with  section  1  of  article  9  of  the  Constitution,  which  recognized 
a  broad  public  interest  in  schools  by  making  other  than  qualified 
electors  eligible  for  election  to  town  school  committees ;  second, 
it  excluded  from  participation  in  the  election  of  school  com- 
mittees a  large  class  of  citizens  who  should  have  a  deep  interest 
in  free  public  schools;  third,  it  exempted  or  excluded  from 
taxation  for  school  support  all  naturalized  citizens  who  were 
not  landholders,  thus  weakening  public  responsibility;  fourth, 
it  tended  to  place  control  of  the  public  school  system  in  the 
hands  of  a  class  of  citizens,  instead  of  all  citizens.  Thus  it 
violated  that  broad  and  well-defined  principle  of  public  school 
administration  in  a  democracy  which  aims  to  make  the  support 
and  government  of  schools  a  subject  of  universal  responsibility, 
and  which  in  some  commonwealths  has  prompted  the  granting 
of  suffrage  privileges  to  women  in  the  selection  of  school  boards 


294  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

and  school  officers,  and  on  school  questions  submitted  to  the 
referendum. 

The  registry  tax  provision  of  the  Constitution  was  actually 
neither  a  revenue  nor  a  school  measure.  The  agitation  for  its 
modification  or  repeal,  which  continued  for  46  years  from  1842, 
was  fostered  by  practical  politicians  and  political  reformers 
rather  than  by  school  men.  This  was,  in  the  first  instance,  a 
continuation  of  the  long-time  political  movement  culminating 
in  the  Dorr  war,  which  was  only  partly  satisfied  by  the  reforms 
in  the  Constitution  of  1842.  The  narrow  restriction  of  suffrage 
rights  to  landholders  and  their  eldest  sons,  emphasizing  primo- 
geniture, gave  way  in  1842,  but  the  naturalized  citizen  of  the 
United  States  was  still  beyond  the  pale  of  suffrage  rights  in 
Rhode  Island,  unless  he  became  a  landholder.  The  advocate  of 
a  broader  democracy,  call  him  reformer  or  demagogue,  found  an 
issue  ready-made  for  him  as  the  ratio  of  electors  to  citizens  and 
of  electors  to  population  diminished  as  immigration  increased. 
In  1886  "soldiers  and  sailors  of  foreign  birth,  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  who  served  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United 
States  from  this  state  in  the  late  Civil  War,  and  who  were 
honorably  discharged  from  such  service,"  were  admitted  to 
"the  right  to  vote  .  .  .  upon  the  same  conditions  and 
under  and  subject  to  the  same  restrictions  as  native  born 
citizens."  In  1888  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  substitu- 
ted the  poll  tax  for  the  registry  tax.  The  poll  tax  amendment 
was  as  follows : 

"Every  male  citizen  .  .  .  whose  name  shall  be  registered 
in  the  town  or  city  where  he  resides  on  or  before  the  last  day 
of  December  in  the  year  next  preceding  the  time  of  his  voting, 
shall  have  a  right  to  vote.  .  .  . 

"The  assessors  of  each  town  and  city  shall  annually  assess 
upon  every  person  who,  if  registered,  would  be  qualified  to 
vote,  a  tax  of  one  dollar,  or  such  sum  as  with  his  other  taxes 
shall  amount  to  one  dollar,  which  tax  shall  be  paid  into  the 
treasury  of  such  town  or  city  and  be  applied  to  the  support  of 
public  schools  therein." 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  295 

Excluding  questions  of  practical  politics,  which  make  the 
time  of  registration  an  issue  as  well  as  the  limited  suffrage  rights 
of  non-property  holders,  and  viewing  the  poll  tax  law  as  a  school 
revenue  measure,  it  is  superior  to  the  registry  tax  law,  because 
it  provides  for  the  assessment  of  poll  taxes  upon  all  citizens 
eligible  to  become  electors,  but  its  effectiveness  is  determined 
largely  by  the  strictness  or  laxness  that  attends  collection  of  the 
tax.  Moreover,  there  is  an  apparent  conflict  in  the  statutes 
that  supplement  the  constitutional  provision,  it  being  provided 
in  one  place  that  the  poll  taxes  assessed  shall  be  applied  to  the 
support  of  public  schools,  and  in  another  that  town  treasurers 
shall  credit  to  the  school  account  only  the  amount  of  the  tax 
collected. 

In  1914  the  General  Assembly  authorized  the  assessing  of  poll 
taxes  against  resident  male  aliens,  the  poll  tax  thus  covering  all 
male  residents,  21  years  of  age  and  older,  except  taxpayers  whose 
other  taxes  amount  to  one  dollar  annually,  and  except  citizens 
of  other  states  less  than  two  years  in  residence.  The  law 
follows: 

"The  assessors  of  taxes  of  each  town  and  city  shall,  at  the 
time  of  the  annual  assessment  of  town  and  city  taxes  therein, 
respectively,  assess  against  every  person  in  said  town  or  city 
who,  if  registered,  would  be  qualified  to  vote,  a  tax  of  one  dollar, 
or  so  much  thereof  as  with  other  taxes  shall  amount  to  one 
dollar;  and  shall  also  assess  a  tax  of  like  amount,  to  be  applied 
to  the  same  purpose,  against  every  other  male  person  of  the 
age  of  21  years  of  over  who  is  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
who  has  had  his  residence  in  said  town  or  city  for  six  months 
next  preceding  such  assessment." 

Dog  Licenses. — Revenue  derived  from  licensing  dogs  was 
ordered  applied  to  the  support  of  public  schools,  after  deducting 
damages  paid  for  injuries  inflicted  by  dogs  on  domestic  animals, 
by  act  of  January,  1869.  In  1875  an  amendment  to  the  statute 
authorized  towns  to  set  aside  the  balance  as  a  damage  fund, 
instead  of  applying  it  to  school  support.  As  a  school  revenue 
measure  the  law  favors  city  schools.  There  are  in  cities  and 


296  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

compactly  settled  towns  few  sheep,  lambs,  cattle,  horses,  pigs 
and  fowl  likely  to  injury  by  dogs.  In  the  city  of  Providence  the 
dog  license  law  yields  a  net  revenue  in  excess  of  $10,000  an- 
nually, which  is  transferred  to  the  school  budget. 

Tuition. — In  the  schools  established  in  Providence  under  the 
school  act  of  1800  and  maintained  in  spite  of  its  repeal,  tuition 
was  free,  but  pupils  were  assessed  for  fuel,  until  1833,  and  were 
required  to  furnish  ink  for  writing.  The  school  law  of  1828 
omitted  the  word  free  as  used  in  the  act  of  1800,  and  appro- 
priated $10,000  annually  "to  and  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of 
keeping  public  schools."  Under  this  law,  town  school  com- 
mittees maintained  such  public  schools  and  for  such  periods 
as  the  school  money  available  warranted.  A  committee  of 
Providence  citizens  wrhich  in  1831  investigated  the  operation 
of  the  law  of  1828  reported  thus:  "In  nearly  every  country 
town  private  schools  correspond  very  nearly,  both  in  number 
and  scholars,  with  the  public  schools;  they  may  be  considered 
as  the  public  schools  continued  by  individual  subscription  from 
three  to  six  months  each."  The  committee  estimated  the 
average  time  of  schools,  other  than  twenty  which  were  con- 
tinued through  the  year,  as  three  months. 

The  law  of  1839,  appropriating  $25,000  annually  "for  the 
purpose  of  maintaining  public  schools,"  directed  that  the  money 
should  be  "applied  to  pay  for  instruction,  and  not  for  room 
rent,  fuel  or  for  any  other  purpose."  By  subsequent  act  in  the 
same  year  school  committees  were  authorized  to  assess  an 
amount  sufficient  to  pay  for  fuel,  rent  and  other  incidental 
expenses,  if  these  were  not  provided  by  the  town,  upon  those 
who  sent  scholars  to  the  schools.  This  was  an  important  meas- 
ure in  so  far  as  it  enabled  school  committees  to  conduct  schools 
where  towns  gave  no  aid,  but  it  fastened  the  rate  bill  upon  the 
Rhode  Island  school  system.  Parents  or  guardians  too  poor 
to  pay  were  exempted. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  ,     297 

The  Barnard  school  law  of  1845  authorized  school  districts  to 
fix  a  rate  of  tuition  to  be  paid  by  the  parent,  guardian  or  em- 
ployer of  each  child  attending  school,  toward  the  expenses  of 
fuel,  books  and  estimated  expense,  but  not  exceeding  one  dollar 
per  pupil  for  each  three  months.  No  child  could  be  excluded 
from  school,  however,  on  account  of  the  inability  of  the  parent, 
guardian  or  employer  of  the  child  to  pay  the  tax,  rate  or  assess- 
ment levied  for  school  purposes. 

Rate  bills  were  abolished  in  1868  and  all  the  public  schools  of 
the  state  became  free  public  schools. 

School  trustees  under  the  district  law,  and  school  committees 
were  authorized  to  receive  and  admit  non-resident  pupils, 
charging  them  tuition,  which  must  be  applied  to  school  pur- 
poses. In  1839  school  committees  were  authorized  to  provide 
for  the  attendance  of  town  children  at  schools  in  other  towns, 
if  more  convenient  and  expedient,  and  to  pay  tuition  for  such 
children,  the  town  receiving  tuition  being  obliged  to  use  it 
exclusively  for  school  support.  In  1898  a  statute  providing 
special  aid  for  town  high  schools,  authorized  town  school  com- 
mittees to  send  town  children  to  approved  high  schools  or 
academies  in  other  towns  and  pay  tuition  for  them,  and  in  1909 
towns  were  required  to  establish  high  schools  or  send  pupils 
fitted  for  high  school  to  approved  high  schools  or  academies  in 
other  towns.  Towns  maintaining  high  schools  are  required  by 
law  to  receive  pupils  from  other  towns  at  cost,  under  penalty  of 
forfeiting  state  aid.  All  tuition  received  must  be  applied  to 
school  purposes.  The  cities  and  larger  towns  profit  most  from 
tuition  payments. 

Fines. — Under  the  truancy  law,  fines  assessed  for  failure  to 
send  children  to  school  accrue  to  the  town  for  the  support  of 
schools.  The  revenue  from  this  source  is  small. 

School  Funds. — Several  towns  derive  a  portion  of  school 
revenue  from  invested  funds. 


298  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

THE  APPORTIONMENT  OF  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 
MONEY. 

Passing  from  revenue  to  apportionment,  the  theory  and  policy 
of  public  school  support  and  their  development  appear  clearly  in 
the  series  of  acts  providing  state  aid  for  public  schools.  The 
theory  and  policy  varied  in  Rhode  Island  from  time  to  time, 
but  the  variation  was  progressive,  and  was  continuously  and 
always  in  one  direction — toward  a  state  system  of  free  public 
schools  supported  in  the  main  by  general  public  taxation. 
While  it  is,  perhaps,  an  anachronism  to  describe  the  public 
schools  of  Rhode  Island  as  a  state  system  until,  in  1882,  the 
school  law  was  made  mandatory,  a  clear  presentation  is  facili- 
tated by  treating  the  town  and  district  schools  as  a  state  system 
in  process  of  development  prior  to  1882.  State  control  was 
fostered  by  extending  state  support  and  by  prescribing  condi- 
tions precedent  to  receiving  state  support,  and  state  control  was 
perfected  by  statutory  enactment  when  at  last  the  people  had 
been  educated  to  it — when  a  public  consciousness  had  been 
created  and  was  aroused  by  a  court  decision  that  towns  were 
not  required  by  law  to  maintain  free  public  schools — when 
civic  experience  had  prepared  for  fruition. 

The  Act  of  1800. — Upon  the  petition  of  the  Providence  Asso- 
ciation of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers,  presented  in  1799,  the 
General  Assembly,  in  1800,  enacted  a  general  school  law,  the 
financial  provisions  of  which  were  as  follows : 

Sec.  4.  And  be  it  further  Enacted:  That  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  institutions  so  useful  there  shall  be  allowed  and  paid 
to  the  town  treasurer  of  each  town  or  his  order,  out  of  the 
general  treasury  at  the  end  of  every  year,  computing  from  the 
first  of  October  next,  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  amount  of  the 
state  taxes  of  that  year  paid  into  the  general  treasury  by  said 
town,  provided  the  said  sum  or  allowance  of  twenty  per  cent, 
shall  not  exceed  in  the  whole  the  sum  of  $6000  in  any  one  year. 
And  the  town  making  application  to  the  General  Treasurer 
for  said  allowance  shall  exhibit  and  deliver  to  him  a  certificate 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  299 

signed  by  the  town  council,  town  treasurer  and  schoolmaster 
or  schoolmasters  of  said  town,  that  a  school  or  schools  have 
been  established  and  kept  in  said  town  according  to  the  pro- 
visions of  this  act,  and  specify  the  number  of  schools  and  the 
term  for  which  each  school  shall  have  been  kept. 

Sec.  5.  And  be  it  further  Enacted:  That  the  allowances 
aforesaid  when  paid  to  the  town  treasurer  shall  be  and  remain 
exclusively  appropriated  to  the  establishment  and  support  of 
free  schools,  and  shall  be  paid  out  under  the  order  of  the  several 
town  councils  and  be  by  them  applied  accordingly. 

Section  6  provided  for  forfeiture  of  the  town's  right  to  the 
tax  rebate  upon  failure  to  keep  schools,  and  section  7  for  an 
annual  report  to  the  General  Assembly  by  the  General  Treasurer. 

Sec.  8.  And  be  it  further  Enacted:  That  if  any  school 
district  in  any  town  shall  think  fit  to  keep  a  school  in  said  dis- 
trict for  a  longer  time  than  the  town  shall  provide  for  the 
same,  or  to  erect  a  schoolhouse,  or  to  enlarge,  ornament  or 
repair  any  already  erected,  it  shall  be  and  may  be  lawful  for 
any  seven  freemen  of  said  school  district  to  make  application 
to  any  justice  of  the  peace  in  the  town  for  a  warrant  for  calling 
a  meeting  of  the  freemen  of  said  district;  and  the  said  justice 
shall  thereupon  grant  such  warrant,  directed  to  the  town  ser- 
geant and  constables  of  said  town,  to  warn  the  freemen  of 
said  district  to  assemble  at  a  proper  time  and  place,  to  be 
prescribed  in  said  warrant,  to  take  into  consideration  the  sub- 
ject therein  mentioned;  and  the  said  warrant  being  first  served 
in  the  manner  in  which  warrants  for  calling  town  meetings  are 
served  in  said  town,  the  freemen  of  said  district,  any  seven  of 
whom  shall  be  a  quorum,  shall  and  may  assemble  and  appoint  a 
clerk,  treasurer,  collector  and  such  other  officers  and  committees 
as  occasion  may  require,  and  order  and  assess  such  taxes  on  the 
inhabitants  of  said  district,  to  be  assessed  in  the  proportion 
of  the  last  town  tax,  as  they  may  think  necessary  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid,  which  tax  shall  be  collected  by  warrant  from  the 
clerk  of  said  school  district  directed  to  the  district  collector,  and 
shall  be  levied  and  collected  in  the  same  manner  and  under 
the  same  laws  and  regulations  as  town  taxes,  and  shall  be 
appropriated  to  the  uses  aforesaid,  according  to  the  vote  and 
order  of  the  said  school  district  meeting;  and  the  freemen  of 
said  district,  assembled  as  aforesaid,  shall  and  may  make  such 
other  lawful  orders  and  regulations  relative  to  the  continuance 
and  support  of  their  district  school  as  to  them  may  appear 
useful;  and  that  any  other  meeting  of  such  freemen  shall  and 
may  be  called  by  the  clerk  by  warrant  on  request  of  any  seven 
of  said  freemen,  and  the  meeting  so  called  shall  and  may  have 
and  exercise  the  powers  and  privileges  aforesaid. 


300  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

The  act  of  1800  died  almost  in  the  horning.  In  1801  the 
operation  of  vital  sections  was  suspended,  and  in  1803  the  act 
was  repealed.  Curiously,  neither  the  act  itself  nor  the  record 
of  its  repeal  was  printed  in  the  Schedules.  Henry  Barnard, 
in  his  " History  of  the  Rhode  Island  School  Law,"  attributed 
the  failure  of  the  act  to  the  want  of  an  agent  to  explain  its  pro- 
visions. The  eighth  section,  giving  large  powers  to  seven 
freemen,  constituting  a  legal  quorum,  was  objectionable,  and 
is,  perhaps,  a  sufficient  explanation  of  the  serious  opposition 
to  the  law  which  speedily  developed.  Taxpayers  who  might 
interpose  no  obstacle  to  the  operation  of  a  law  intended  merely 
to  provide  aid  for  free  public  schools,  realized  how  easily  a 
comparatively  small  body  of  freemen,  legally  assembled,  could 
commit  a  district  to  an  extensive  educational  programme. 
There  is  no  record  of  a  payment  of  money  from  the  state  treasury 
in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  act.  Although  other 
towns  considered  the  establishment  of  schools,  Providence  was 
the  only  town  that  actually  carried  the  act  into  effect,  and  the 
public  schools  in  Providence  were  maintained  in  spite  of  the 
repeal  of  the  act. 

The  basis  of  apportionment  was  taxation.  Twenty  per  cent, 
of  the  ordinary  levy  of  the  period,  $20,000,  would  have  yielded 
$4000  annually  for  distribution.  Perhaps  the  freemen  foresaw 
that  besides  possibly  increased  town  taxation,  increased  state 
taxation  might  be  necessary  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  state  if 
support  of  schools  were  undertaken.  If  the  net  state  revenue 
were  to  be  maintained  at  $20,000,  the  annual  levy  must  be 
raised  to  $25,000;  the  20  per  cent,  rebate  would  then  carry 
$5000  back  to  the  towns.  To  produce  $6000  for  distribution, 
the  state  tax  must  be  raised  to  $30,000. 

The  Rhode'Island  act  of  1800  contrasts  sharply  with  the  early 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  acts  requiring  towns  to  main- 
tain schools,  in  that  it  provided  state  aid.  Of  this  aspect  of  the 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  301 

act  the  report  of  the  committee  of  the  General  Assembly  to 
which  the  petition  for  free  schools  was  referred,  said: 

"The  committee  have  attempted  to  insure  the  compliance 
of  the  towns  with  the  requirements  of  the  law  by  the  encourage- 
ment of  bounties,  and  not  by  the  penalty  of  fines.  Rewards, 
in  their  opinion,  will  be  far  more  effectual  than  punishments. 
We  all  know  and  regret  the  facility  with  which  the  penalties 
of  law  are  evaded.  The  only  objection  to  bounties  is  the  danger 
of  fraud.  The  committee  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  guards 
and  checks  of  the  bill  are  adequate  to  the  prevention  of  that 
evil.  They  have  made  it  the  interest  of  every  town  to  comply 
with  the  act,  and  yet  the  temptation  held  out  to  their  self- 
interest  is  drawn  from  the  funds  of  the  town  itself.  The  ex- 
pense is  to  fall  on  the  individual  towns,  and  the  general  treasury 
will  not  be  ultimately  impoverished.  The  revenues  necessary 
for  the  support  of  a  system  of  free  and  general  education  will 
not  probably  exceed  in  amount  the  sums  now  paid  by  the 
citizens  for  the  support  of  the  partial  institution  of  private 
schools.  The  burden  will,  in  the  proposed  plan,  be  more  equally 
laid,  and  its  good  effects  more  generally  enjoyed;  but  the  aggre- 
gate expense  will  not,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  be  sensibly 
increased. 

"Were  it  submitted  to  the  towns  to  establish  free  schools  with- 
out the  certainty  of  loss  in  the  event  of  non-compliance,  even 
though  that  non-compliance  should  subject  them  to  criminal 
prosecution,  we  should  find  but  a  tardy  and  unwilling  obedience 
to  the  law,  and,  instead  of  the  satisfaction  which  the  Assembly 
may  derive  from  the  complete  establishment  of  a  general  sys- 
tem of  education,  they  must  submit  to  the  unavailing  regret 
that  their  benevolent  intentions  have  been  misconstrued,  dis- 
regarded and  defeated." 

Vain  hope  !  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  "  benevolent  inten- 
tions" of  the  General  Assembly  were  "misconstrued,  disre- 
garded and  defeated,  "  as  proved  by  the  speedy  repeal  of  the  law, 
the  act  of  1800  and  the  committee  report  are  worthy  of  study,  for 
some  of  the  general  principles  set  forth  were  subsequently 
carried  into  Rhode  Island  school  legislation.  It  was  clearly 
pointed  out  that  a  general  system  of  education  for  all  could  be 
maintained  at  the  cost  of  private  education  for  a  few — a  per- 
tinent reason  for  the  socialization  of  education.  And,  further, 
the  principle  of  attractive  legislation  was  applied.  Almost 
without  exception,  Rhode  Island  school  legislation  has  been 


302  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

attractive  —  to  the  extent  that  compliance  with  it  earned  a 
bounty.  By  such  legislation  the  state  has  educated  the  people 
to  the  needs  of  education,  not  by  abstraction,  but  by  actual 
experience  fostered  by  the  state,  and  by  enjoyment  of  the 
benefits  of  progress  while  a  part  of  the  burden  of  cost  has  been 
carried  by  the  state.  Since  the  unfortunate  repeal  of  the  law 
of  1800,  no  advance  movement  undertaken  in  Rhode  Island 
schools  has  failed  of  accomplishment.  The  policy  of  the  state 
has  been  to  aid  a  beginning,  nourish  a  growth  and  trust  to  the 
people  to  maintain  what  from  use  had  changed  from  a  luxury 
or  fad  to  a  recognized  necessity. 

The  Act  of  1828. — State  support  of  public  schools  began  with 
the  school  act  of  1828,  the  financial  provisions  of  which  follow: 

Sec.  1.  Be  it  Enacted  by  the  General  Assembly,  and  by 
the  Authority  thereof  it  is  Enacted:  That  from  and  after  the 
passing  of  this  act,  all  money  that  shall  be  paid  into  the  general 
treasury  by  managers  of  lotteries  or  their  agents,  also  all  money 
that  shall  be  paid  into  said  treasury  by  auctioneers  for  duties 
accruing  to  the  state,  shall  be  set  apart  and  paid  over  to  the 
several  towns  in  this  state  in  manner  hereinafter  mentioned, 
in  proportion  to  their  respective  population  under  the  age  of 
16  years  (changed  to  15  in  1831),  as  exhibited  by  the  census 
provided  by  law  to  be  taken  from  time  to  time  under  the 
authority  of  the  United  States,  always  adopting  for  the  ratio 
the  census  next  preceding  the  time  of  paying  out  each  annual 
appropriation  of  said  money  as  herein  provided,  to  be  by  said 
towns  appropriated  to  and  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  keeping 
public  schools,  and  paying  the  expenses  thereof,  the  sum, 
however,  hereby  appropriated  to  be  paid  in  any  one  year  not 
to  exceed  $10,000. 

Section  2  empowered  towns  to  raise  not  exceeding  double 
the  amount  of  the  state  appropriation  by  tax  levied  by  order 
of  the  freemen,  but  towns  were  not  required  to  raise  any  money 
to  be  added  to  the  state  appropriation. 

Subsequent  sections  provided  for  the  payment  of  any  excess 
of  the  specific  revenue  set  aside  over  $10,000  appropriated  for 
school  support  into  a  permanent  school  fund,  and  that"  whenever 
in  any  year  the  amount  received  as  aforesaid  from  lotteries 
and  auctioneers  shall  fall  short  of  the  sum  of  $10,000  annually 
to  be  distributed,  the  dividends  and  interest  only  of  said 
(permanent)  fund  then  accrued,  or  so  much  thereof  as 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  303 

shall  be  necessary,  shall  be  added  to  the  last  named  sum, 
and  paid  over  and  distributed  according  to  the  provisions  of 
this  act,"  and  further  that  "whenever  in  any  year  the  money 
paid  into  the  treasury  from  the  sources  provided  by  this  act 
shall  fall  short  of  said  sum  of  $10,000,  the  deficiency  for  said 
year  shall  be  made  good  from  any  money  in  the  treasury  not 
otherwise  appropriated." 

The  act  of  1828  assured  an  annual  appropriation  of  $10,000  for 
aid  of  public  schools,  to  be  maintained  by  the  several  towns. 
The  radical  departures  in  financial  policy  from  the  act  of  1800 
were  in  the  nature  of  the  revenue  set  aside  for  education  and 
in  the  basis  of  apportionment.  For  wealth  or  taxation,  popu- 
lation was  substituted  in  the  latter  instance,  with  an  approxi- 
mation as  near  to  school  population  as  the  age  statistics  of  the 
United  States  census  permitted.  The  modern  state  census 
began  in  Rhode  Island  only  in  1865,  and  there  was  no  annual 
school  census  until  1879.  The  United  States  census  of  1830 
reported  age  statistics  in  five-year  periods  beginning  with  the 
quinquennial  and  decennial  years;  that  is,  under  5,  from  5  to  9, 
from  10  to  14,  from  15  to  19  years.  In  1831  the  school  law  was 
modified  accordingly,  the  basis  of  apportionment  becoming 
population  under  15.  When  it  was  found  that  the  same  census 
reported  age  statistics  of  free  colored  people  under  10,  and  then 
only  from  10  to  24,  the  law  was  amended  again,  basing  the  ratio 
of  distribution  upon  white  population  under  15,  plus  colored 
population  under  10,  plus  five-fourteenths  of  colored  population 
between  ages  10  and  24.*  There  was  no  change  in  the  principle 
of  apportionment. 

Neither  the  law  of  1836,  appropriating  the  income  of  the 
United  States  deposit  fund  to  school  support,  nor  the  act  of 
1839,  fixing  the  annual  school  appropriation  at  $25,000,  changed 
the  basis  of  apportionment,  nor  required  the  towns  to  supple- 
ment the  state  appropriation,  but  the  act  of  1839,  by  limiting 
the  use  of  state  school  money  to  expenditure  for  instruction, 

*Thia  was  obviously  merely  an  expedient  for  reducing  colored  population  to  approxi- 
mately the  same  basis  as  white  population. 


304  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

transferred  to  other  sources  the  burden  of  providing  money  for 
fuel,  rent  and  other  incidental  school  expenses.  This  was,  in 
fact  and  in  law,  the  beginning  of  application  of  the  principle 
that  state  school  money  should  not  be  used  to  enrich  the  towns. 
Provision  and  maintenance  of  schoolhouses  ultimately  became 
a  town  function.  The  town  in  providing  schoolhouses  merely 
acquires  property;  to  permit  it  to  spend  state  school  money  for 
this  purpose  would  enrich  the  town  and  defeat  the  purpose  of 
the  state  in  fostering  public  education.  Under  the  district  sys- 
tem the  same  principle  was  applied  with  reference  to  town  school 
money,  which,  when  apportioned  to  a  district,  could  not  be 
used  in  providing  a  schoolhouse.  To  enable  school  committees 
to  conduct  schools  when  towns  made  no  provision  for  fuel,  rent 
and  incidental  expenses,  rate  bills  were  authorized  in  1839,  but 
were  abolished  in  1868. 

State  Appropriations,  to  1840. — The  amount  of  state  aid  dis- 
tributed annually  to  the  several  towns  under  the  acts  of  1828 
and  1839,  and  the  amounts  raised  in  addition  thereto  by  the 
towns  in  1839  and  1840  are  set  forth  in  the  following  table: 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE. 


305 


State  appropriations. 

Town  appropriations. 

1828 

1839 

1839 

1840 

Barrington  

$75.56 
380.63 
286.04 
134.33 
408.75 
260.75 
314.73 
181.79 
323.82 
394.83 
329.78 
229.80 
50.22 
177.82 
188.33 
119.87 
767.50 
378.92 
117.41 
286.80 
205.94 
1252.09 
194.85 
359.60 
583.72 
485.16 
370.69 
209.06 
428.35 
254.79 
247.98 

$160.31 
790.62 
644.70 
359.00 
1059.20 
680.33 
970.83 
389.15 
685.80 
821.45 
690.60 
481.65 
80.15 
604.95 
359.00 
252.80 
1739.52 
827.62 
359.00 
864.62 
440.53 
3818.20 
413.80 
1048.92 
1738.85 
1042.75 
787.90 
403.52 
1454.50 
499.45 
530.28 

$93.75 

$130.70 
847.00 
300.00 

Bristol  

Burrillville  

300.00 

Charlestown  

Coventry  *  

Cranston.  

500.00 
500.00 

500.00 
500.00 

Cumberland  

East  Greenwich  

Exeter  

Foster           

Glocester   

627.34 

627.34 

Hopkinton  

Jamestown  

Johnston  

350.00 

350.00 

Little  Compton      .... 

Middletown  

Newport    

800.00 

800.00 

North  Kingstown  

New  Shoreham  

84.00 
260.00 

78.50 
500.00 

North  Providence  

Portsmouth   .  .        

Providence  

7000.00 

7000.00 

Richmond  

Scituate  

300.00 
1000.00 

300.00 
1000.00 

Smithfield  

South  Kingstown  

Tiverton      

295.00 
360.00 
500.00 

Warren   

360.00 
400.00 

Warwick  

Westerly       

West  Greenwich  

Totals  

$10,000.00 

$25,000.00 

$12,575.09 

$14,088.54 

A  committee  of  citizens  of  Providence  in  1831*  reported  323 
public  schools  in  the  state  and  17,034  pupils  attending  them. 
The  whole  amount  appropriated  by  towns  to  supplement  the 

"•Oliver  Angell's  Report.     See  Chapter  III. 


306 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 


state  appropriation  of  $10,000  was  reported  as  $11,490.>  In 
1837  nineteen  towns  reported  to  the  General  Assembly  12,350 
pupils.  Harrington,  Charlestown,  Exeter,  Johnston,  Little 
Compton,  New  Shoreham,  North  Providence,  Richmond, 
Scituate,  South  Kingstown,  Tiverton  and  West  Greenwich  were 
not  included. 

Complete  returns  for  the  whole  state  are  set  forth  in  the 
following  table,  which  shows  the  number  of  pupils,  male,  female 
and  total;  expenditures  for  fuel,  rent  and  incidentals;  cost  of 
instruction;  total  expenditures;  state  appropriations  and  town 
expenditures,  from  1839  to  1845.  The  figures  were  compiled 
from  town  reports  to  the  Secretary  of  State. 


1839 

1840 

1841 

1842 

1843 

1844 

1845 

Male  pupils.  . 
Female  pupils. 

Total  pupils 

8112 
5636 

10,202 
7550 

11,253 
9000 

12,479 
9372 

11,960 
8132 

11,811 

10,345 

11,386 
9710 

13,748 

17,752 

20,253 

21,851 

20,092 

22,156 

20,096 

Expenditures  : 

Fuel,  rent,  etc. 
Instruction.  .  . 

Total  exp  .  . 
State  appro.  .  . 

Town  exp  .... 

$2972 
32,383 

$4104 
36,096 

$6313 
40,516 

$5482 
39,088 

$5899 
42,944 

$5405 
48,336 

$5165 
48,444 

$35,355 
25,000 

$40,200 
25,000 

$46,829 
25,000 

$44,570 
25,000 

$48,843 
25,000 

$53,741 
25,000 

$53,609 
25,000 

$10,355 

$15,200 

$21,829 

$19,570 

$23,843 

$28,741 

$28,609 

Obviously,  in  the  towns,  a  transforming  process  was  in 
operation,  evidenced  by  the  rapid  growth  of  town  expenditures 
for  education.  The  towns  were  almost  ready,  in  1845,  for  the 
next  change  in  the  basis  of  apportionment. 

The  Law  of  1845. — The  Barnard  act  of  1845  made  no  change 
in  the  amount  of  the  state's  annual  appropriation  of  $25,000, 
but  if  the  public  schools  of  that  period  may  be  viewed  as  a  state 
system  in  the  process  of  organization,  it  did  change  the  basis  of 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  307 

apportionment  of  school  money.  The  Barnard  act  required 
towns  to  raise  by  taxation  at  least  one-third  the  amount  received 
from  the  state.  Viewing  the  towns  as  agents  of  the  state  for  the 
collection  and  disbursement  of  the  minimum  town  tax  for  school 
support,  the  state-town  school  money  becomes  $33,333.33 — to 
be  apportioned  $25,000  on  the  basis  of  population  under  15, 
and  $8333.33  on  the  basis  of  taxable  wealth.  That  is,  the  towns 
were  taxed,  or  ordered  to  tax  themselves,  $8333.33  for  the  sup- 
port of  schools,  but  each  was  permitted  to  retain  for  support 
of  its  own  schools  the  amount  collected  in  the  town.  Henry 
Barnard,  in  his  report  of  a  draft  of  the  law  to  the  General 
Assembly,  advocated  a  compulsory  minimum  town  tax  equal 
to  the  amount  of  the  state  appropriation.  This,  as  the  table 
above  shows,  would  have 'been  less  for  the  whole  state  than  the 
towns  were  appropriating  without  compulsion  in  1845,  but  one- 
third  the  amount  of  the  state  school  money  was  more  than 
some  of  the  towns  were  appropriating.  Enforcement  of  the 
minimum  town  tax  law  was  difficult;  recourse  to  the  penalty 
of  withholding  state  school  money  was  had  in  some  instances; 
in  1848  the  General  Assembly  passed  a  general  law,  ordering  the 
transfer  to  the  permanent  school  fund  of  the  share  of  any  town 
which  forfeited  its  school  money  by  failure  to  appropriate  its 
quota.* 

In  1850-1851  the  House  and  Senate  could  not  agree  on  a  meas 
ure  to  raise  the  minimum  town  school  tax  to  one-half  the  state 
appropriation,  the  Senate  finally  prevailing  and  the  tax  remain- 
ing unchanged.  Hence  the  general  school  law  of  1851  did  not 
change  the  basis  of  apportionment,  although  Commissioner 
Potter  in  an  earlier  report  to  the  General  Assembly  had  recom- 
mended that  in  the  revised  school  law  apportionment  should 
be  readjusted  in  such  manner  as  to  render  greater  aid  to  school 
districts  in  which  the  population  was  scattered  and  the  taxable 
wealth  small.  No  change  was  made  until  three  years  later. 

*Forfeitures  still  go  to  the  permanent  school  fund. 


308  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

Meanwhile  the  general  tax  law  of  1849  provided  an  additional 

/  -  • 

annual  appropriation  of  $10,000  for  schools,  apportioned  on  the 
same  basis  as  the  $25,000  appropriated  by  earlier  acts.  Pay- 
ment of  $35,000  annually  began  in  1850. 

Increased  Appropriations. — In  1854  the  annual  state  appro- 
priation was  increased  to  $50,000,  $35,000  to  be  apportioned 
on  the  basis  of  population  under  15  years  and  $15,000  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  school  districts  in  each  town.  It  was 
further  provided  that  town  school  committees  in  apportioning 
the  town's  share  in  the  $15,000  should  divide  it  equally  amongst 
the  districts. 

Every  town  in  the  state  benefited  from  the  increased  appro- 
priation, but  the  larger  share  in  the  $15,000  fell  to  towns  having 

the  largest  number  of  districts.     The  following  table  shows  for 
i 

each  town  the  average  annual  cost  per  pupil;  the  amounts  dis- 
tributed to  the  several  towns  in  the  apportionment  of  the 
$35,000  and  the  $15,000;  in  the  last  column,  the  total  amounts 
available  for  school  support  in  each  of  the  several  towns,  in- 
cluding state  and  town  appropriations,  registry  taxes  and  other 
income.  The  fourth  column  shows  the  amount  which  each 
town  would  receive  from  the  $15,000  if  the  apportionment  were 
based  on  population  under  15  years.  A  comparison  of  the  third 
and  fourth  columns  will  show  the  effect  of  the  change  from 
population  to  school  district  as  the  basis  of  apportionment. 
The  figures  selected  are  those  of  the  first  apportionment  under 
the  act  of  1854. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE. 


309 


Cost 
per 
pupil. 

State  appropriation. 

On  old 

basis 

Total 
appropria- 
tion. 

$35,000. 

$15,000. 

$9.31 
8.36 
4.35 
3.42 
3.89 
7.12 
7.92 
3.88 
6.66 
4.42 
8.08 
£.68 
6.88 
.  4.56 
10.02 
11.36 
16.15 
4.69 
6.05 
4.78 
9.11 
9.03 
5.27 
6.24 
5.33 
4.66 
6.86 
8.87 
3.98 
4.66 
5.39 

$1080.86 
148.45 
865.86 
247.18 
841.08 
1115.96 
1578.87 
544.82 
432.50 
475.35 
623.80 
655.24 
67.28 
752.51 
356.87 
189.41 
2122.23 
369.31 
711.56 
1857.50 
449.02 
9716.05 
418.30 
1026.74 
2759  .  19 
961.69 
1302.44 
583.31 
1755.86 
324.70 
663.29 

$157.04 
117.78 
628.16 
274.82 
706.68 
431.86 
785.20 
196.30 
471.12 
745.94 
588.90 
471.12 
78.52 
510.38 
392.60 
196.30 
196.30 
196.30 
588.90 
392.60 
274.82 
863.72 
510.38 
706.68 
1374.10 
824.46 
667.42 
117.78 
588.90 
471.12 
471.12 

$463.22 
63.62 
372.51 
105.93 
360.46 
478.27 
676.66 
233.50 
185.34 
203.72 
267.34 
266.73 
25.73 
322.59 
152.94 
81.17 
909.52 
158.27 
304.95 
796.07 
192.72 
4164.02 
179.27 
440.03 
1196.80 
412.16 
558.19 
278.56 
752.51 
139.62 
274.27 

$6435.03 
631.13 
2626.58 
1040.86 
2282.20 
4749.39 
7576.07 
1314.21 
1419.32 
1892.62 
2821.09" 
2214.94 
275.93 
2161.95 
1953.07 
1154.71 
9229  .  28 
885.79 
3075.93 
6330.89 
2115.23 
43,336.36 
1318.70 
3773.20 
9277.85 
2974.42 
5084.17 
2582.28 
4023.66 
1396.97 
2643.25 

Bristol  

Burrillville  

Coventry  

Cranston  

Cumberland  ...            

Exeter  

Foster    

Hopkinton  

Jamestown  

Little  Compton  

Middletown  

Newport  

New  Shoreham  

North  Kingstown  

North  Providence  .... 

Providence  

Richmond  

Scituate  

Smithfield  

South  Kingstown.  .  . 

Tiverton  

Warren  

Westerly  

Total  public  school  money, 

$138,613  04 

Effect  of  Density  of  Population. — The  figures  in  the  first 
column  of  the  table,  giving  annual  cost  per  pupil,  must  be 
accepted  with  the  caution  that  the  length  of  the  school  year 
varied  in  the  several  towns,  and  that  the  basis  of  computation 
was  not  uniform  with  respect  to  including  or  excluding  rate 
bills  in  estimates.  In  11  towns  the  per  capita  cost  was  less 
than  $5,  and  in  11  towns  the  per  capita  cost  exceeded 
$7.  Arranged  in  the  order  of  cost  per  pupil,  from  highest  to 


310  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

lowest,  the  list  of  towns  reads:  1,  Newport;  2,  Middletown; 
3,  Little  Compton;  4,  Barrington;  5,  Portsmouth;  6,  Provi- 
dence; 7,  Glocester;  8,  Warren;  9,  Bristol;  10,  Cumberland; 
11,  Cranston;  12,  Jamestown;  13,  Tiverton;  14,  Exeter;  15, 
Scituate;  16,  North  Kingstown;  17,  Hopkinton;  18,  Smith- 
field;  19,  Westerly;  20,  Richmond;  21,  North  Providence;  22, 
New  Shoreham;  23,  West  Greenwich;  24,  South  Kingstown; 
25,  Johnston;  26,  Foster;  27,  Burrillville;  28,  Warwick;  29, 
Coventry;  30,  East  Greenwich;  31,  Charlestown.  One  striking 
characteristic  of  this  arrangement  is  that  the  eastern  towns 
occupy  11  of  the  first  13  places,  Glocester  and  Cranston  being 
the  only  towns  west  of  a  line  drawn  through  Narragansett  bay 
and  the  Providence  and  Moshassuck  rivers  holding  high 
positions. 

Arranged  in  the  order  of  population  under  15,  from  greatest 
to  least,  the  list  of  towns  follows :  1,  Providence;  2,  Smithfield; 
3,  Newport;  4,  North  Providence;  5,  Warwick;  6,  Cumber- 
land; 7,  Tiverton;  8,  Cranston;  9,  Barrington;  10,  Scituate; 
11,  South  Kingstown;  12,  Burrillville;  13,  Coventry;  14, 
Johnston;  15,  North  Kingstown;  16,  Westerly;  17,  Hopkinton; 
18,  Glocester;  19,  Warren;  20,  East  Greenwich;  21,  Foster; 
22,  Portsmouth;  23,  Exeter;  24,  Richmond;  25,  New  Shore- 
ham;  26,  Little  Compton;  27,  West  Greenwich;  28,  Midde- 
town;  29,  Charlestown;  30,  Bristol;  31,  Jamestown. 

Placed  side  by  side,  the  two  lists  of  towns  show  little  correla- 
tion between  the  number  of  inhabitants  and  cost  per  pupil; 
density  of  population  is  plainly,  therefore^  a  more  likely  index 
of  per  capita  cost  than  is  the  number  to  be  educated.  The 
eastern  towns  were,  and  still  are,  more  closely  populated  than 
the  western  towns.  Lest  the  population  rating  be  questioned, 
it  should  be  remembered  that  in  1855  Tiverton  included  Fall 
River;  Cumberland  included  part  of  Woonsocket;  North 
Providence  included  a  portion  of  what  is  now  Providence, 
besides  so  much  of  Pawtucket  as  lies  west  of  the  Seekonk  and 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  311 

Blackstone  rivers;  Smithfield  included  North  Smithfield,  Lin- 
coln, Central  Falls  and  part  of  Woonsocket,  and  Warwick 
included  West  Warwick. 

The  last  column  of  the  table  is  of  genuine  interest  in  that  it 
indicates  the  progress  which  popular  support  of  public  education 
had  made  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  from  1829,  when  Rhode 
Island  as  a  state  made  its  first  apportionment  of  $10,000  for  the 
support  of  schools.  In  1831  the  total  expenditure  for  public 
school  support  by  both  state  and  the  towns  was  estimated  at 
less  than  $22,000;  it  was  more  than  six  times  as  great  in  1855. 
The  total  expenditure  in  1855  was  more  than  three  times  as 
great  as  the  expenditure  in  1840,  and  it  was  two  and  one-half 
times  as  great  as  it  had  been  in  1845. 

A  Change  in  Policy. — The  main  purpose  of  the  table,  however 
is  to  show,  and  the  most  significant  fact  which  it  presents  is, 
the  change  in  the  policy  of  apportionment  produced  by  the  act  of 
1854.  The  change  appears  in  a  comparison  of  the  third  and 
fourth  columns  of  the  table.  The  third  column  shows  the 
actual  apportionment  of  the  additional  appropriation  provided 
by  the  law  of  1854  at  $39.26  per  district  for  each  of  the  382  school 
districts  in  the  state ;  the  fourth  column  shows  the  amount  of 
each  town's  share  in  the  $15,000  had  the  money  been  appor- 
tioned on  the  old  basis  of  population  under  15  years.  Eight 
towns  received  less  by  the  new  than  by  the  old  plan  of  appor- 
tionment; 23  towns  profited  by  the  new  ratio.  The  eight  towns 
receiving  less  were  Providence,  Newport,  North  Providence, 
Barrington,  Cranston,  East  Greenwich,  Warren  and  Warwick. 
Of  the  eight  towns  Providence  was  first,  Newport  second,  North 
Providence  fourth,  Warwick  fifth,  Cranston  eighth,  and  Bar- 
rington ninth  in  population;  that  is,  six  of  largest  ten  towns 
received  less.  Smithfield,  with  35  districts;  Cumberland,  with 
20;  Scituate,  with  18,  and  Tiverton,  with  17,  escaped  decrease 
by  sheer  weight  of  the  number  of  their  districts.  In  Provi- 
dence, Warren,  Bristol  and  Newport,  there  were  no  districts, 


312  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

strictly  speaking;  the  division  in  these  towns  was  calculated  on 
the  basis  of  schoolhouses. 

The  law  of  1854  introduced  a  third  principle  of  apportionment 
in  Rhode  Island — that  of  equal  participation  by  the  unit  of 
school  organization.  This  principle,  under  the  district  organi- 
zation, favored  the  towns  smaller  in  population.  The  General 
Assembly  thus  attempted  to  aid  especially  the  weaker  towns. 
The  three  bases  of  apportionment  in  force  in  1855  were:  Popu- 
lation under  15,  taxable  wealth,  and  the  school  district  as  a  unit. 

A  fourth  method  of  apportionment  made  its  appearance  in  the 
Revised  Statutes  of  1857,  which  provided  for  the  apportionment 
of  the  state's  annual  appropriation  of  $50,000  to  the  towns, 
$35,000  on  the  basis  of  population  under  15  and  $15,000  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  school  districts.  Each  town  was  re- 
quired to  raise  by  taxation  at  least  one-half  its  share  in  the 
apportionment  of  $35,000,  an  increase  of  one-sixth  in  the  obliga- 
tion of  the  town.  School  committees  apportioning  school 
money  were  required  to  divide  the  town's  share  of  the  $15,000 
equally  amongst  the  districts ;  also  one-half  of  the  town's  share 
in  the  $35,000  equally,  and  the  other  half  on  the  basis  of  average 
daily  attendance.  Proceeds  of  the  town  school  tax  and  the 
registry  tax  might  be  divided  equally,  according  to  the  order  of 
the  town,  or  at  the  discretion  of  the  school  committee  in  the 
absence  of  a  town  order.  The  novelty  of  the  law  lay  in  the 
recognition  of  average  daily  attendance  as  a  new  basis  of 
apportionment. 

In  1865  towns  were  required  to  appropriate  annually  an 
amount  equal  to  the  town's  share  in  the  state's  distribution  of 
$35,000,  carrying  the  state-town  school  appropriation  to 
$85,000.  Three  years  later  the  state  raised  its  annual  appro- 
priation to  $70,000,  apportioned  in  the  same  ratio  as  the  earlier 
$50,000,  and  at  the  same  time  required  towns  to  raise  at  least 
one-half  the  town's  share  in  the  distribution  of  the  whole 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  313 

$70,000,  the  combined  state-town  appropriation  thus  reaching 
$105,000. 

Rate  bills  were  forbidden  thereafter,  and  the  public  schools 
of  the  state  became  free  schools  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name. 
Several  towns  had  anticipated  the  law,  Providence  as  early  as 
1833.  In  1869  the  state  added  another  $20,000  to  its  annual 
appropriation,  in  1870  receipts  from  dog  licenses  were  appro- 
priated to  the  support  of  schools,  and  in  1871  towns  were  re- 
quired to  raise  for  school  support  an  amount  equal  to  their 
shares  in  the  apportionment  of  the  state  appropriation.  The 
state-town  appropriation  thus  became  $180,000  annually. 

The  Laws  Codified. — The  General  Statutes  of  1872  furnished 
a  codification  of  the  law  of  school  money  apportionment  as 
follows.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  division  of  $90,000  as  $63,000 
and  $27,000  followed  the  seven-three  ratio  (that  is  $35,000- 
$15,000)  of  the  law  of  1854. 

Chapter  46,  Sec.l.  The  sum  of  $90,000  shall  be  annually 
paid  out  of  the  income  of  the  permanent  school  fund  and  from 
other  money  in  the  treasury  for  the  support  of  public  schools 
in  the  several  towns  upon  the  order  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools. 

Sec.  2.  The  sum  of  $63,000  shall  be  apportioned  ...  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  children  .  .  .  under  the  age 
of  15;  and  the  sum  of  $27,000  ...  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  school  districts  in  each  town. 

Sec.  3.  The  money  appropriated  by  the  state  as  aforesaid 
shall  be  denominated  "teachers'  money"  and  shall  be  applied 
to  the  wages  of  teachers  and  to  no  other  purpose. 

Sec.  4.  No  town  shall  receive  any  part  of  such  state  appro- 
priation unless  it  shall  raise  by  tax  for  the  support  of  public 
schools,  a  sum  equal  to  the  amount  it  may  receive  from  the 
state  treasury  for  the  support  of  public  schools. 

Chapter  47,  Sec.  3.  Any  town  may  vote  ...  to 
provide  schoolhouses  .  .  .  fixtures  and  appendages  there- 
to in  all  the  districts  ...  at  the  common  expense  of  the 
town:  Provided,  that  if  any  district  shall  provide  at  its  own 
expense  a  schoolhouse  approved  by  the  school  committee,  such 
district  shall  not  be  taxed  by  the  town  to  build  or  repair  schools 
for  other  districts. 


314  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

Sec.  4.  Every  school  district  may  raise  money  by  tax  on 
the  ratable  property  of  the  district  to  support  public  schools 

.  .  .  provided  that  the  amount  of  the  tax  shall  be  ap- 
proved by  the  school  committee. 

Chapter  52,  Sec.  2.  The  trustees  of  school  districts  shall 
provide  schoolrooms  and  fuel. 

Sec.  3.  The  trustees  shall  see  that  scholars  are  properly 
supplied  with  books,  and  in  case  they  are  not,  and  the  parents, 
guardians  or  masters  have  been  notified  thereof  by  the  teacher, 
shall  provide  the  same  at  the  expense  of  the  district. 

Chapter  53,  Sec  12.  Wherever  the  public  schools  are 
maintained  by  district  organization  the  school  committee  shall 
apportion  .  .  .  among  the  school  districts  the  town's 
proportion  of  the  sum  of  $63,000  received  from  the  state,  one- 
half  equally  and  the  other  half  according  to  the  average  daily 
attendance  of  the  school  of  the  preceding  year. 

Sec.  13.     Wherever  the  town  is  divided  into  school  districts 

.  .  .  the  school  committee  shall  apply  equally  among 
all  the  districts  of  the  town  the  town's  proportion  of  the  sum 
of  $27,000  received  from  the  state. 

Sec.  14.  The  school  committee  shall  apply  the  money  re- 
ceived from  the  town,  from  the  registry  tax,  from  school  funds 
and  from  other  sources,  either  equally  or  in  such  proportion 
as  the  town  may  direct,  and  for  want  of  such  direction,  then 
in  such  manner  as  they  deem  best. 

Sec.  21.  The  school  committee  may  use  annually  out  of 
the  public  appropriation  a  sum  not  exceeding  $40  to  defray 
the  expense  of  printing  their  report. 

The  annual  appropriation  and  the  method  of  apportionment 
remained  unchanged  from  1869  to  1884.  But  in  the  meantime 
the  state  had  established  Rhode  Island  Normal  School,  for 
which  it  had  purchased  and  refitted  a  building;  and  which  it 
maintained  at  an  annual  expenditure  of  close  to  $10,000.  For 
evening  schools  $5000  was  appropriated  in  1873,  to  be  appor- 
tioned and  expended  under  the  direction  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education,  with  a  smaller  amount  annually  thereafter,  accord- 
ing to  the  necessities  of  the  evening  schools.  From  1880  dates 
an  annual  appropriation  of  $3000,  apportioned  to  the  several 
towns  to  aid  in  purchasing  dictionaries,  encyclopaedias,  works 
of  reference,  maps  and  similar  school  apparatus.  Rhode  Island 
was  not  marking  time  in  educational  progress,  by  any  means. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  315 

Beginning  in  1879,  the  towns  were  required  to  take  an  annual 
census  of  children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  fifteen  years, 
but  the  purpose  of  this  census  at  that  time  was  to  aid  in  enforcing 
the  truancy  law,  not  to  determine  the  apportionment  of  school 
money.  The  Supreme  Court  having  declared  the  school  law 
merely  permissive,  in  1882  compliance  with  its  provisions  was 
made  mandatory. 

The  Act  of  1884- — In  1884  the  state  made  its  last  increase  of 
the  general  appropriation  for  the  support  of  public  schools,  and 
also  changed  the  method  of  apportionment.  The  statute  pro- 
vided for  an  annual  appropriation  of  $120,000,  to  be  appor- 
tioned by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  among  the  several 
towns,  as  follows:  "The  sum  of  $100  shall  be  apportioned  for 
each  school,  not  to  exceed  15  in  any  one  town;'  the  remainder 
shall  be  apportioned  according  to  the  school  census  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  children  from  five  to  fifteen  years  of  age, 
inclusive,  in  the  several  towns,  according  to  the  school  census 
then  last  preceding."  School  in  this  statute  refers  to  the 
organization  of  teacher,  class,  and  school  register;  that  is, 
approximately,  schoolroom  rather  than  schoolhouse.  This 
feature  of  the  law  was  merely  an  adaptation  of  the  district  unit, 
with  the  exception  that  units  over  fifteen  were  not  counted  in 
the  apportionment.  The  effect  of  the  law  was  distinctly  favor- 
able to  the  smaller  towns.  On  the  other  hand,  apportionment 
of  the  balance  of  the  appropriation  on  the  basis  of  school  popu- 
lation rather  than  school  attendance,  distinctly  favored  the 
cities  and  larger  towns,  where  parochial  and  other  private  schools 
are  maintained.  The  apportionment  by  schools  has  increased 
slowly  in  30  years,  quite  as  much  through  the  division  of 
towns  as  through  increase  in  the  number  of  schools  in  smaller 
towns.  In  consequence  of  this  increase  and  also  because  of 
increase  of  school  population,  the  per  capita  apportioned  has 
shrunken  approximately  50  per  cent.,  from  $1.20  to  60  cents, 
in  round  numbers. 


316  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    BHODE   ISLAND. 

Another  Change  of  Policy. — The  beginning  of  a  new  policy  of 
apportionment  ^overlapped  the  period  which  culminated  in  the 
law  of  1884.  While,  as  the  amount  of  the  appropriation  fixed 
by  the  law  of  1884  remains  unchanged,  the  state  may  not  be 
said  to  have  abandoned  the  principle  of  the  law  of  1884,  every 
advance  in  the  past  30  years  and  two  advances  prior  to  1884 
apply  a  somewhat  different  method  of  apportionment.  A 
brief  resume  of  this  legislation  follows: 

1873.  An  annual  appropriation  for  the  support  and  main- 
tenance of  evening  schools  in  the  various  towns,  under  the 
general  supervision  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  which 
apportions  state  aid  at  the  discretion  of  the  Board  and  accord- 
ing to  necessity.  The  first  appropriation  carried  $5000;  the 
amount  has  varied;  it  was  $9000  in  1917.  The  law  prescribed 
no  town  obligation.  The  Board  in  1916  adopted  rules  and 
regulations  governing  the  apportionment  of  evening  school 
money. 

1880.  An  annual  appropriation  of  $3000  for  the  purchase 
of  dictionaries,  encyclopaedias  and  other  works  of  reference, 
maps,  globes  and  other  apparatus,  for  use  of  the  public  schools 
of  the  state.  To  participate  in  the  apportionment  towns  must 
expend  an  amount  equal  to  the  state  money,  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. Aid  was  limited  to  $200  per  town  and  $10  per  school 
annually.  The  restriction  favored  the  smaller  towns.  The 
amount  of  the  appropriation  has  been  increased  to  $4500. 

1898.  An  act  to  encourage  the  consolidation  of  ungraded 
schools  and  the  organization  of  graded  schools,  provided  an 
additional  $100  annually  for  each  graded  school  organized  in 
accordance  with  its  provisions,  and  that  the  towns  should  lose 
no  part  of  the  general  appropriation  in  consequence  of  the 
reduction  in  the  number  of  schools.  The  act  clearly  aimed  to 
improve  rural  schools. 

1898.  An  act  to  encourage  and  assist  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  high  schools,  provided  for  the  payment  to  towns 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  317 

maintaining  high  schools  in  which  the  course  of  study  was  ap- 
proved by  the  State  Board  of  Education,  or  sending  children  to 
approved  high  schools  or  academies  in  other  towns,  of  $20  for 
each  pupil  in  average  attendance  up  to  25  pupils,  and  $10  per 
pupil  for  each  additional  pupil  up  to  25,  the  maximum  share 
of  a  town  being  $750.  In  1909  aid  was  increased  to  $25  each 
for  the  first  25  pupils  and  $15  each  for  the  second  25,  making 
the  town's  share  $1000,  but  the  act  of  1909  made  the  main- 
tenance of  a  high  school  or  the  sending  of  town  children  to  an 
approved  high  school  compulsory.  The  act  was  intended  to 
provide  high  school  education  for  every  town  in  the  state.  To 
aid  graded  schools  and  high  schools  the  state  appropriated 
$37,500  in  1917.  The  limitation  of  the  amount  of  state  aid 
for  high  schools  favors  the  smaller  towns. 

1903.  An  act  providing  state  aid  for  towns  employing 
expert  superintendents.  Providence,  in  1839,  hired  the  first 
Rhode  Island  town  superintendent  of  schools.  Towns  were 
authorized  to  appoint  superintendents  by  the  act  of  1851. 
In  1871  school  committees  were  required  to  elect  superin- 
tendents if  the  towns  failed  to  do  so.  In  1903  the  state  under- 
took the  payment  of  $750  toward  the  salary  of  every  super- 
intendent receiving  annually  not  less  than  $1500.  The  act  was 
intended  as  a  persuasive  inducement  to  small  towns  to  raise 
the  nominal  salaries  paid  to  part-time  superintendents,  and 
secure  experts  at  small  additional  expense  to  the  towns.  The 
appropriation  for  this  purpose  was  $19,000  in  1917,  In  1915 
a  plan  for  supervision  even  more  favorable  for  small  towns 
was  adopted. 

1903.  School  districts  were  abolished,  the  law  to  take  effect 
January  1,  1904.  The  district  had  ceased  to  be  a  factor  in  the 
apportionment  of  state  school  money,  under  the  act  of  1884. 
The  effects  of  abolishing  districts  were,  on  the  revenue  side, 
the  elimination  of  school  district  taxes  and  the  transfer  of  the 
burden  of  support  of  schools  from  the  districts  to  the  town  as  a 


318  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

unit;  and  on  the  apportionment  side,  the  obviation  of  special 
distribution  to  particular  schools.  The  abolition  of  districts 
tended  to  level  town  school  standards — upward.  The  act  also 
caused  important  administrative  changes. 

1909.  The  state  fixed  the  minimum  salary  for  teachers  at 
$400.  To  assist  towns  paying  smaller  salaries,  the  state  assumed 
one-half  the  increased  expenditure.  The  appropriation  in  1917 
was  $6500.  An  indirect  consequence  of  this  act  was  a  lengthen- 
ing of  the  school  year  in  several  towns,  which  warranted  legis- 
lation making  the  minimum  school  year  36  weeks.  Several 
town  school  committees  realized  that  a  teacher's  annual  salary 
cou*ld  be  raised  just  as  easily  by  lengthening  the  school  year  as 
by  increasing  her  weekly  wages.  The  lengthened  school  year 
gave  the  towns  a  return  for  the  additional  expenditure  for  in- 
struction, which  was  taken  advantage  of.  It  is  not  certain 
that  this  by-product  of  the  minimum  salary  law  was  not  fore- 
seen by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

1911.  An  act  to   encourage   and   aid  medical   inspection. 
Up  to  $250  annually,  any  town  may  receive  from  the  state 
one-half  its  expenditure  for  regular  medical  inspection  in  public 
and  private  schools.     The  restriction  favors  the  smaller  towns. 
The  appropriation  was  $4000  in  1917. 

1912.  An  act  providing  an  appropriation  from  which  any 
town  may  receive  from  the  state  one-half  the  amount  which  the 
town  expends  for  apparatus  and  equipment  for  instruction  in 
manual  training  and  household  arts,  and  one-half  the  town's 
expenditure  for  instruction  in  courses  in  vocational  industrial 
education.     The  appropriation  is  $5000  annually. 

1913.  An  act  appropriating  $5000  annually,  which  the  State 
Board  of  Education  and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
apportion  as  special  assistance  to  towns  in  which  the  taxable 
property  is  inadequate,  at  the  average  rate  of  taxation  through- 
out the  state,  to  support  public  schools  of  high  standard.     No 
limitation  is  imposed  upon  the  purposes  for  which  the  money 
may  be  expended. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  319 

The  Purpose:  Improvement  and  Extension. — The  state  appro- 
priations for  apportionment  to  the  several  towns  for  school 
purposes  under  the  legislation  cited  exceeded  $90,000  in  1917. 
Since  1884,  without  changing  the  amount  of  its  general  school 
appropriation,  Rhode  Island  has  increased  its  appropriations 
for  aid  of  public  schools  more  than  75  per  cent.  Under  the 
earlier  general  appropriation  laws  a  system  of  state-town  schools, 
maintained  under  mandatory  statutes  and  supported  partly 
by  the  state  and  partly  by  town  taxation,  had  been  developed. 
The  legislation  and  appropriations  since  1884  have  aimed  at 
improvement  and  extension  of  the  system.  The  state,  from 
time  to  time,  has  selected  a  specific  progressive  movement  for 
encouragement.  The  policy  of  apportionment  has  been  deter- 
mined largely  by  the  needs  of  the  weaker  towns,  in  an  attempt 
to  lighten  the  burdens  imposed  or  to  be  undertaken.  The 
purpose  of  the  state  has  been  improvement  for  all  schools,  city 
and  rural,  alike.  As  a  rule,  therefore,  the  maximum  aid  for 
cities  and  towns  has  been  the  same  in  amount,  but  the  aid  per 
pupil  and  proportionate  to  taxable  wealth  has  been  greatest 
in  the  weakest  towns  The  principle  of  attractive  legislation 
has  been  maintained,  and  with  it  the  principle  of  encouraging 
self-help.  To  the  towns  the  state  has  said :  "  If  you  will  under- 
take this  improvement,  I  will  help  you  by  sharing  the  cost." 

Recapitulating :  The  bases  of  apportioning  public  school 
money  in  Rhode  Island  have  varied  as  follows : 

1800.     Taxable  wealth;  law  repealed,  1803. 

1800-1845.     Population  under  16-15. 

1845-1854.     Population  under  15  and  taxable  wealth. 

1854-1857.  Population  under  15,  number  of  school  districts 
and  taxable  wealth. 

1857-1884.  To  the  towns,  population  under  15,  number  of 
school  districts  and  taxable  wealth.  To  the  districts,  number 
of  districts,  average  attendance,  discretion  of  the  school  com- 
mittee and  taxable  wealth. 


320  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

1884-1917.  General  appropriation,  number  of  schools  up  to 
15  in  each  town  or  city,  and  school  population,  5  to  15  years. 
Special  appropriations,  generally  an  amount  equal  to  one-half 
the  town's  expenditure  up  to  a  specified  maximum. 

PUBLIC  SUPPORT  OF  SCHOOLS. 

The  significant  facts  in  the  history  of  public  support  of  schools 
in  Rhode  Island  are  the  increase  in  the  amount  of  the  state's 
annual  appropriations;  the  vastly  more  rapid  increase  in  the 
amount  of  money  raised  by  town  taxation  and  appropriated  by 
the  towns  for  school  purposes;  the  increase  in  the  total  amount  of 
money  available  for  school  support,  accelerated  by  larger  returns 
from  all  sources;  and  the  placing  of  the  burden  of  public  school 
support  on  taxation  of  wealth.  The  story  is  told  statistically 
in  the  following  tables  so  clearly  that  scarcely  any  comment  is 
necessary,  beyond  an  explanation  of  the  grouping  of  figures, 
the  sources  from  which  they  were  obtained,  and  the  changes 
from  time  to  time  hi  the  grouping,  knowledge  of  which  is  a 
necessary  precaution  against  comparisons  which  might  be  odious 
through  error. 

The  figures  have  been  taken  from  66  reports  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools  to  the  General  Assembly  and  to 
the  Board  of  Education.  The  tables  show  the  amounts  of  state 
appropriations  distributed  to  the  towns  annually,  but  no  part 
of  the  money  which  the  state  expends  directly  or  appropriates 
for  institutions;  the  amounts  of  town  appropriations  for  school 
support  and  improvement  annually;  the  amounts  derived  from 
rate  bills  and  school  district  taxes  annually;  the  amounts  de- 
rived from  specified  sources,  but  not,  separately,  from  all  other 
sources  annually;  and  the  total  amount  from  all  sources  avail- 
able for  school  support  in  each  year.  This  total  includes,  be- 
sides the  total  amounts  of  receipts  from  sources  specifically  and 
separately  presented,  additional  receipts  from  school  funds, 
loans,  donations  or  any  other  source.  The  two  columns  under 
expenditures  separate  the  amounts  paid  in  each  year  for  in- 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE. 


321 


struction  and  incidental  school  expenses,  that  is,  cost  of  main- 
tenance, from  the  amounts  paid  for  buildings  and  school  fur- 
niture, properly  rated  as  permanent  improvements. 

The  purpose  of  the  tables  is  to  measure  by  statistics  the 
growth  of  a  public  consciousness  and  its  expression  in  the 
acceptance  by  the  people  of  Rhode  Island  of  the  responsibility 
of  supporting  public  education.  •  The  record  is  such  that  the 
state  may  well  feel  proud  of  it. 

The  first  table  covers  19  years,  from  1851  to  1869,  and  shows 
state  and  town  appropriations,  receipts  from  rate  bills  and 
registry  taxes,  total  amounts  available  for  school  purposes,  and 
expenditures  for  schools  and  buildings.  The  irregularity  in 
the  increase  normally  to  be  expected  is  explained  in  large  part 
by  incomplete  returns;  the  figures  for  1861,  a  notable  exception 
to  the  rule  of  sustained  improvement,  omit  school  expenditures 
in  Providence.  The  returns  from  rate  bills  and  registry  taxes 
fluctuated.  The  table  stops  at  1869  because  of  the  abolition 
of  rate  bills. 


APPROPRIATIONS. 

Rate 
Bill. 

Registry 
Tax. 

Total.* 

EXPENDITURES. 

State. 

Town. 

Schools. 

B'ld'gs. 

1851 

$35,168 
34,998 
35,000 
34,997 
49,994 
49,994 
50,931 
49,997 
49,997 
49,997 
49,997 
49,164 
49,997 
49,997 
49,997 
49,997 
49,997 
.  49,997 
70,000 

$55,489 
55,806 
66,081 
61,013 
62,565 
79,740 
98,212 
107,021 
91,284 
95,873 
99,281 
94,972 
99,296 
101,518 
150,596 
150,563 
165,317 
189,664 
199,861 

$10,075 
10,210 
6,516 
10,823 
11,721 
10,502 
7,394 
5,251 
5,893 
6,831 
5,420 
3,739 
4,551 
3,296 
4,920 
9,655 
9,630 
8,945 
2,452 

$6,327 
8,015 
7,369 
6,185 
7,923 
6,522 
11,185 
10,163 
10,794 
11,539 
15,512 
12,681 
13,443 
10,339 
9,784 
7,489 
10,867 
24,758 
12,432 

$110,294 
115,160 
125,004 
118,602 
138,613 
151,843 
172,415 
190,969 
162,687 
168,365 
174,695 
164,493 
160,748 
178,954 
177,240 
227,791 
324,831 
286,852 
302,807 

$94,472 
98,135 
115,081 
103,050 
131,675 
148,347 
167,520 
112,177 
151,696 
120,075 
82,093 
158,324 
166,308 
166,611 
143,614 
201,279 
217,906 
271,562 
267,176 

$23,903 
9,626 
21,902 
7,349 
16,001 
33,085 
32,518 
48,085 
12,457 
34,729 
25,528 
2,577 
21,587 
9,704 
17,578 
23,518 
89,098 
62,309 
85,845 

1852  

1853  

1854 

1855 

1856 

1857  

1858  

1859  .  . 

1860 

1861 

1862  

1863  

1864   

1865 

1866 

1867  

1868  

1869  

•("Includes  balances,  loans,  income  of  funds  and  donations. 


322 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 


The  school  district  tax  replaced  the  rate  bill  in  1868-9.  The 
receipts  from  registry  taxes  in  the  following  table  are  combined 
with  "other  receipts,"  as  in  the  reports  of  the  Commissioner. 
The  first  appropriation  for  evening  schools  appeared  in  the  state 
column  for  1874,  and  that  for  apparatus  in  1881.  The  table 
covers  20  years,  stopping  at  1887,  when  the  registry  tax  passed 
out  of  the  Constitution.  The  extraordinary  figure  in  the 
fourth  column  for  1874  is  not  an  error;  the  large  receipts  were 
probably  due  to  loans  for  school  building. 


State. 

Town. 

Registry 
and  other. 

District 
Taxes. 

Total.* 

EXPENDITURES. 

Schools. 

B'ld'gs. 

1870  .  . 

$90,000 
90,000 
90,000 
90,000 
93,314 
92,495 
91,569 
91,654 
92,307 
92,923 
93,248 
93,859 
94,106 
92,995 
92,370 
93,580 
123,869 
123,945 
124,563 
125,001 

$246,046 
315,348 
309,579 
414,186 
328,322 
566,756 
509,957 
521,156 
494,637 
423,272 
365,422 
397,241 
409,344 
481,172 
474,677 
572,047 
582,515 
578,286 
620,165 
655,070 

$48,890 
36,363 
24,491 
28,899 
210,355 
28,587 
39,631 
34,440 
34,600 
27,467 
26,390 
33,753 
25,192 
23,807 
32,387 
31,143 
32,226 
39,261 
46,616 
51,525 

$82,197 
58,952 
59,722 
41,664 
,66,882 
47,626 
58,915 
52,785 
56,543 
31,786 
49,429 
37,325 
60,691 
55,270 
37,482 
44,669 
54,223 
35,131 
51,157 
63,790 

$470,899 
514,040 
496,906 
589,861 
745,770 
761,797 
734,116 
730,422 
709,444 
600,208 
558,451 
582,966 
608,126 
674,396 
659,586 
780,003 
839,865 
844,225 
930,540 
978,962 

$336,662 
312,326 
375,407 
431,520 
453,670 
489,317 
642,879 
502,846 
555,102 
479,862 
487,631 
503,543 
519,702 
517,101 
534,183 
571,827 
608,380 
636,983 
743,190 
690,074 

$212,391 
148,835 
90,217 
171,292 
237,181 
274,326 
206,587 
223,117 
174,669 
117,886 
56,570 
46,394 
73,134 
130,215 
102,359 
164,995 
174,586 
161,482 
184,785 
217,213 

1871  

1872  

1873  .  . 

1874..  .. 

1875  

1876  

1877 

1878  

1879  

1880  

1881  

1882  

1883  

1884  

1885  

1886  

1887  

1888  

1889  

^Includes  balances,  loans,  income  of  funds  and  donations. 

Poll  taxes  replaced  registry  taxes  in  1889-90.  The  figures 
below  combine  poll  and  dog  taxes.  Until  1900  the  two  sources 
produced  nearly  an  equal  revenue,  dogs  slightly  leading  ratable 
polls  who  paid  taxes.  The  right  to  vote  being  independent  of 
the  payment  of  this  tax,  there  was  no  incentive  to  pay  it,  par- 
ticularly where  towns  made  little  attempt  to  enforce  collection. 
A  decision  by  the  Supreme  Court  that  the  poll  tax  was  con- 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE. 


323 


stitutional  and  that  collection  could  be  enforced,  increased  the 
receipts  from  this  source  and  explains  the  marked  improvement 
in  the  fourth  column  of  the  table,  beginning  with  1902.  The 
table  covers  15  years,  from  1890  to  1904,  when  school  districts 
were  abolished. 


State. 

Town. 

Polls 
and  dogs. 

District 
Taxes. 

Total.* 

EXPENDITURES. 

Schools. 

B'ld'gs. 

1890 

$124,596 
128,458 
126,366 
127,120 
126,747 
128,940 
127,129 
128,281 
129,294 
128,324 
139,799 
141,250 
141,805 
142,773 
149,019 

$685,004 
763,675 
839,662 
898,529 
966,594 
1,116,801 
1,125,664 
1,214,197 
1,248,467 
1,223,733 
1,206,684 
1,279,926 
1,485,953 
1,417,610 
1,476,837 

$41,352 
43,402 
41,011 
42,155 
36,550 
36,926 
37,116 
35,654 
33,361 
32,307 
43,623 
50,234 
57,407 
61,437 
66,101 

$61,382 
66,270 
59,388 
45,560 
55,647 
46,919 
45,118 
47,695 
53,700 
43,151 
52,224 
40,773 
54,938 
78,534 
2,044 

$1,091,994 
1,185,104 
1,469,301 
1,334,108 
1,670,010 
1,633,290 
1,715,300 
1,774,106 
1,781,757 
1,665,609 
1,572,307 
1,673,449 
1,868,382 
1,948,685 
1,854,952 

$714,910 
801,272 
833,420 
907,268 
1,058,134 
1,095,999 
1,135,126 
1,197,121 
1,282,962 
1,296,781 
1,328,843 
1,386,549 
1,407,658 
1,455,206 
1,542,353 

$203,080 
256,384 
467,596 
277,790 
420,706 
267,086 
493,455 
534,614 
434,531 
274,114 
197,713 
243,410 
300,755 
401,169 
262,409 

1891  

1892  

1893  . 

1894 

1895  

1896  

1897  . 

1898  

1899  

1900  

1901  

1902  
1903  

1904    .  . 

*Includaa  balances,  loans,  income  of  funds  and  donations. 


With  the  abolition  of  school  districts,  district  taxes  passed 
from  the  sources  of  school  revenue,  In  the  table  that  follows 
poll  taxes  and  dog  taxes  are  separated. 


State. 

Town. 

Polls. 

Dog. 

Total.* 

EXPENDITURES. 

Schools. 

B'ld'gs. 

1905. 

$152,346 
157,168 
159,530 
160,725 
162,796 
162,598 
170,510 
173,863 
176,520 
188,592 
192,644 
204,659 

$1,593,935 
1,785,368 
1,850,677 
1,866,220 
2,021,792 
2,477,625 
2,095,324 
2,166,350 
2,386,506 
2,427,768 
2,880,248 
2,957,598 

$38,951 
40,615 
39,009 
37,585 
38,118 
39,797 
39,701 
38,152 
39,936 
40,145 
59,807 
67,731 

$29,679 
30,410 
29,639 
27,165 
25,219 
28,088 
28,825 
29,997 
30,818 
27,449 
26,183 
26,098 

$2,014,821 
2,340,186 
2,433,958 
2,439,139 
2,973,301 
2,537,943 
2,480,493 
2,578,106 
2,890,013 
3,011,166 
3,581,062 
3,940,294 

$1,563,856 
1,707,485 
1,772,711 
1,856,167 
1,927,171 
1,976,261 
2,075,538 
2,152,523 
2,250,673 
2,397,578 
2,518,367 
2,673,574 

$393,894 
534,124 
509,426 
445,884 
915,866 
510,496 
282,233 
252,129 
467,219 
471,276 
818,018 
929,963 

1906 

1907  

1908  

1909  

1910  .  . 

1911  

1912  

1913  

1914  

1915.  . 

1916  

*Includes  balances,  loans,  income  of  funds  and  donations. 


324  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

Another  Measure  of  Progress. — An  even  more  convincing 
measure  of  progress  in  the  state  is  furnished  by  the  figures  in  the 
following  tables,  which  show  the  growth  of  the  tax  levied  upon 
ratable  property  by  the  towns  for  school  purposes  from  year  to 
year,  and  the  gradual  increase  in  the  per  capita  available  for  the 
education  of  the  school  population.  That  is,  the  tables  show: 
First,  that  the  burden  of  school  support  assumed  by  the  tax- 
payers has  increased  faster  than  taxable  wealth,  because  the 
tax  rate  has  increased.  Second,  that  the  amount  of  money 
provided  by  the  towns  for  school  support  has  increased  faster 
than  school  population,  because  the  per  capita  available  has 
increased.  Neither  tax  rate  nor  per  capita  would  increase 
if  the  annual  appropriations  merely  kept  pace  with  the  growth 
of  taxable  wealth  and  the  increase  of  school  population.  This 
proof  of  progress  is  conclusive.  The  figures  for  the  -tables  were 
taken  from  the  annual  reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools. 

The  first  table  covers  13  years,  from  1874  to  1886.  The  per 
capita  expenditure  is  "exclusively  for  teachers'  wages." 

Tax 
rate. 

1874 10 

1875.. 11 

1876 11 

1877 11 

1878 10 

1879 10 

1880 10  7.47 

The  second  table  shows  the  town  school  tax  rate,  and  the  cost 
of  schools  per  capita  of  school  population. 


Per 
capita. 

1881  

Tax 

rate. 

.  .  .      .  1075 

Per 

capita. 

7  46 

7  19 

1882 

1125 

7  23 

7  64 

1883     . 

.•.  ..      12 

7  06 

1884.  . 

13 

7  34 

1885  

.  .  .      .  1350 

8  84 

1886.. 

.1375 

7.81 

PUBLIC  SCHOOL  FINANCE. 


1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 

1895  ..........  2225 

1896  ..........  2475 

1897  ........  .   .2725 

1898  ..........  2775 

1899  ..........  2750 

1900  ..........  2850 

1901  ..........  2850 


Tax 
rate. 

14 

1650 

1675 

17 

18 

20 

22 

23 


Per 
capita. 

7.26 
7.73 
7.87 
8.43 
9.09 
10.03 
10.86 
11.59 
11.53 
12.79 
13.89 
13.76 
13.70 
14.06* 
13.88 


Tax 

Per 

rate. 

capita 

1902  

.  .  .      .29 

14.01 

1903  

.  ..      .3150 

15.13 

1904  

.  ..      .3175 

15.07 

1905  

.  ..      .3125 

15.66 

1906  

.  .  .      .  3375 

16.52 

1907  

.  .  .      .  3375 

16.60 

1908  

.  ..      .3375 

16.47 

1909  

.  ..      .3475 

17.28 

1910  

.  ..      .3475 

18.11 

1911  

.  .  .      .  3525 

18.54 

1912  

.  .  .      .  3525 

18.38 

1913  

.  ..      .3300 

19.47 

1914  

.  ..      .3350 

20.78 

1915  

.  ..      .3425 

21.40 

1916  

.  .      .  3775 

23.46 

THE  STATE'S  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION. 

The  splendid  record  of  state-town  support  of  free  public 
schools  covers  only  one  phase  of  the  state's  activity  in  the  pro- 
motion of  public  education,  and  the  money  apportioned  by  the 
state  to  the  towns  is  approximately  only  one-third  of  the  state's 
entire  expenditure  for^  public  education.  One-fourth  of  the 
state's  annual  appropriations  are  made  directly  for  educational 
purposes,  this  calculation  including  only  money  paid  for  schools, 
libraries  and  educational  institutions,  and  excluding  expendi- 
tures for  printing  and  binding  books  and  reports  for  general 
distribution,  and  money  paid  for  support  of  institutions  whose 
major  purpose  is  not  distinctly  educational.  Besides  the  exemp- 
tion of  educational  institutions  from  taxation,  and  the  support 
and  maintenance  of  free  public  schools  for  normal  children,  the 
state's  educational  activities  may  be  classified  thus: 

1.  Administrative  and  supervisory. 

2.  Preparation,  education,  training  and  improvement  of  the 
teaching  staff,  and  measures  for  the  improvement  of  the  status 
of  the  teacher  economically. 

3.  Maintenance  and  support  of  institutions  of  higher  learning 
and  technical  training. 


326  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

4.  Provision   of   educational   opportunities   for   classes   of 
citizens  whose  defects  or  abnormalities  bar  them  from  the  public 
schools  or  render  their  attendance  at  public  schools  of  doubtful 
value  to  themselves  or  detrimental  to  the  schools. 

5.  Maintenance  of  schools  in  connection  with  eleemosynary 
and  corrective  institutions. 

6.  Maintenance  of  two  state  libraries,  and  of  travelling 
libraries,  and  aid  for  and  supervision  of  free  public  libraries. 

7.  Aid  for  historical  and  humane  societies. 

The  history  of  the  origin,  foundation  and  development  of 
these  educational  activities  has  been  given  in  another  chapter. 
The  discussion  here  is  limited  to  public  finance. 

1.  Administrative  and  supervisory.     Central  control  of  the 
state  system  of  schools  is  vested  in  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  the   Commissioner   of   Public   Schools.     The   State 
Board  serves  without  compensation.     The  salaries  of  the  Com- 
missioner and  his  assistant,  and  the  expenses  of  his  office  exceed 
$10,000  annually. 

2.  Education   and   improvement   of   teachers.     The   state 
maintains  one  normal  school,  in  Providence,  and  to  "  equalize 
opportunity"  pays  mileage  for  pupils  from  outside  the  city. 
From  $10,000  the  cost  of  maintenance  has  risen  to  $70,000 
annually.*    Mileage  for  students  costs  $4000  annually.     The 
state  also  supports  with  an  appropriation  of  $5000  annually  a 
graduate  department  of  education  in  Brown  University;    free 
scholarships  are  granted  by  the  State  Board  of  Education  to 
teachers  and  prospective  teachers.     For  teachers'  institutes  the 
state  appropriates  $500  annually,  and  for  lectures  and  addresses 
for  teachers,  $800  annually. 

High  standards  of  professional  training  of  teachers  are  main- 
tained through  the  state  certificate  law.  For  the  examination 

*This  ia  in  addition  to  tuition  fees  for  pupils  in  the  observation  school  and  normal  depart- 
ment, which  are  credited  to  the  normal  school  account. 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL   FINANCE.  327 

and  certification  of  teachers  by  the  State  Board  of  Education, 
the  state  provides  $2800  annually. 

Beyond  the  apportionment  of  teachers'  money  to  the  towns, 
and  the  teachers'  minimum  salary  law,  the  economic  status  of 
teachers  is  improved  through  the  pension  law,  which  relieves 
teachers  somewhat  of  the  necessity  of  saving  for  their  declining 
years.  Rhode  Island's  pension  law  is  maintained  exclusively 
by  the  state,  which  exacts  no  contribution  from  the  teachers. 
The  cost  exceeds  $45,000  annually. 

Altogether,  Rhode  Island  spends  $130,000  annually  for  the 
improvement  of  teaching  and  for  the  benefit  of  teachers. 

3.  Higher  education  and  technical  education.     The  state 
supplements   Federal   Government  provision  for   the   Rhode 
Island  State  College  by  an  annual  appropriation  of  $40,000, 
besides  providing  the  site  and  buildings,  the  state's  investment 
exceeding   $450,000.     Special   courses   at   the   Rhode    Island 
School  of  Design  receive  state  aid;    the  state  provides  free 
scholarships  at  this  school.     The  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design 
is  a  quasi-public  educational  institution,  chartered  by  the  state 
and  supported  by  endowments,  donations,  tuition  and  state 
appropriations.     Two  members  of  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion serve  as  members  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  school, 
and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  is  a  director  and  a 
member  of  the  executive  committee.     The  Rhode  Island  College 
of  Pharmacy  receives  $1000  annually  for  scholarships.     Higher 
education  costs  the  state  at  least  $64,000  annually. 

4.  Education  of  defective  classes.     Two  schools,  the  Rhode 
Island  Institute  for  the  Deaf  and  the  Exeter  School,  are  state 
institutions.     For  blind  children  of  indigent  parents  the  State 
Board  of  Education  may  provide  suitable  care,  maintenance 
and  instruction  up  to  school  age.    Blind  children  of  school  age 
may  be  sent  at  the  expense  of  the  state  to  institutions  for  the 
education  of  the  blind.     For  the  adult  blind,  education  in  their 
homes  is  provided.     Besides  the  state's  investment  in  sites  and 


328  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

buildings,  education  of  these  defective  classes  involves  an  annual 
expenditure  of  $115,000. 

5.  Eleemosynary  and   corrective.     The   State  Home  and 
School  affords  an  asylum,  as  well  as  an  education,  for  neglected 
and    dependent  children  not  recognized  as  vicious  or  criminal. 
The  annual  cost  is  $70,000.     In  correctional  institutions  for 
youth,  the  Sockanosset  School  for  Boys  and  the  Oaklawn  School 
for  Girls,  schooling  is  supplemented  by  vocational  and  industrial 
training. 

6.  Libraries.     Rhode  Island  maintains  a  State  Library  and 
legislative  reference  bureau  at  an  annual  cost  of  $10,000;    a 
State  Law  Library,  for  use  of  judges  and  counsel,  costing  $8,000 
annually,  and  distributes  $9700  for  the  support  of  free  public 
libraries.     Travelling  libraries  and  a  library  visitor  increase  the 
annual  cost  by  $2500,  the  total  for  library  support  being  $30,200 
annually. 

7.  Historical  and  humane  societies  receive  $10,000  annually 
from  the  state. 

Thus  Rhode  Island  spends  $130,000  for  the  improvement  of 
teaching  and  teachers,  $64,000  for  higher  education,  $115,000 
for  the  education  of  defective  classes,  $70,000  for  the  education 
of  neglected  and  dependent  children,  $30,200  for  libraries, 
$10,000  for  historical  and  humane  societies,  which  with  the 
money  apportioned  to  the  towns  for  school  support  and  the 
expenses  of  administration,  makes  a  grand  total  of  $650,000. 
Less  than  $10,000  is  derived  from  the  income  of  the  permanent 
school  fund,  the  balance  being  a  product  of  taxation.  The 
total  amount  available  for  education,  through  state  and  town 
appropriations  is,  therefore,  nearly  four  and  one-half  million 
dollars  annually. 

Ancillary  School  Finance. — Rhode  Island's  participation  in 
educational  activity  ancillary  to  free  public  schools  is  not  of 
merely  recent  date,  as  witness  the  following  chronology: 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  329 

1845.     Office  of  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  created. 
1845.     First  annual  appropriation  for  education  of  the  blind. 
1845.     Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  authorized  to  aid  and 
encourage  free  public  libraries. 

1849.  First  annual  appropriation  for  teachers'  institutes. 

1850.  Agreement  with  Brown  University  for  establishing 
department  for  training  of  teachers. 

1852.     First  normal  school  established. 
1852.     Secretary  of  State  authorized  to  procure  room  for 
Library. 

1854.     Second  normal  school  established. 

1857.  Commissioners  appointed  by  Governor  to  visit  Eng- 
land and  the  Continent,  to  ascertain  best  means  of  improv- 
ing manufactures  depending  upon  design. 

1863.  Land  scrip,  under  Morrill  act,  assigned  to  Brown 
University,  for  establishing  a  college  or  department  of  agricul- 
ture- 

1863.  Rhode    Island    Institute    of    Instruction    chartered. 
Established  1844. 

1864.  Work  of  educating  defective  classes  extended;  annual 
appropriation  for  education  of  blind,  deaf,  dumb,  idiots  and 
imbeciles. 

1866.  Appropriation   for   normal   training   of   teachers   at 
academies. 

1867.  Towns  authorized  to  levy  taxes  for  free  library  sup- 
port. 

1868.  State  Law  Library  established  under  care  of  Clerk  of 
Supreme  Court.     This  library  succeeded  the  Providence  Bar 
Library  and  took  over  books  of  the  state  entrusted  to  the  latter. 

1870.  State  Board  of  Education  created. 

1871.  Present  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  established. 
1873.     State  aid  for  evening  schools. 


330  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

1875.  State  B.oard  of  Education  authorized  to  apportion 
State  aid  to  free  public  libraries. 

1877.     Institute  for  Deaf  established. 

1882-1884.  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design.  State  scholar- 
ships provided. 

1884.     State  Home  and  School  established. 

1888.  Rhode  Island  State  College  established,  first  as  an 
agricultural  and  mechanics  arts  school.  In  1893  the  school  was 
reorganized  as  a  college  of  agriculture  and  mechanic  arts. 

1898.  State  Board  of  Education  made  exclusive  agency  for 
certificating  teachers. 

1907.     Exeter  School  established. 

1909.     First  teachers'  pensions  legislation. 
•    1911.     Travelling  libraries  and  library  visitor  provided  for. 

1912.  Graduate  courses  and  free  scholarships  in  education 
at  Brown  University  authorized. 

With  the  exception  of  the  earlier  normal  schools  and  the 
department  of  agriculture  at  Brown  University,  each  of  the 
activities  thus  begun  has  been  continued.  The  present  normal 
school  has  been  in  some  part  the  fruition  of  earlier  failures. 
The  department  of  agriculture  at  Brown  University  was  dis- 
continued when  the  state  reorganized  the  school  of  agriculture 
and  mechanic  arts  at  Kingston  as  a  college. 

THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   SCHOOL   FINANCE— 
A  SUMMARY. 

The  history  of  school  finance  in  Rhode  Island  is  unitary — not 
fragmentary.  It  portrays  a  growth — an  evolution — paralleling 
and  corresponding  with  the  development  of  a  civic  social  con- 
sciousness. Rhode  Island's  realization  of  public  responsibility 
for  education  of  all  the  people  of  the  state  did  not  spring  full 
grown  from  the  deliberations  of  one  session  of  the  General 


PUBLIC    SCHOOL    FINANCE.  331 

Assembly,  as  did  Athena  from  the  brow  of  Zeus;  it  passed 
through  several  preliminary  stages  of  development  and  attained 
full  florescence  only  after  nearly  a  century  of  experience.  The 
beginning  was  not  with  a  mandatory  statute,  as  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut;  in  Rhode  Island  the  mandatory 
statute  of  1882  perfected  a  structure  already  erected.  The  law 
of  1882  simply  forbade — as  has  more  than  one  Rhode  Island 
school  law — a  retrogression  and  the  abandonment  of  a  function 
already  exercised.  The  development  of  public  responsibility 
may  be  traced  in  school  financial  legislation,  and  the  several 
stages  may  be  characterized  by  six  words: 

1.  Recognition. — The  earliest  school  legislation,  exempting 
school  property  from  taxation,  symbolizes  the  state's  recognition 
of  education  as  beneficial  to  the  state.     The  words  of  the  charter 
granted  to  Rhode  Island  College  are  significant:     "So  as  most 
effectually  to  answer  the  valuable  ends  of  this  most  useful 
institution."     Beyond   recognition  public   sentiment   scarcely 
went;  hostile  public  sentiment  caused  the  repeal  of  the  law  of 
1800. 

2.  Patronage. — The  law  of  1828  is  typical  of  patronage. 
Rhode  Island  was  almost  as  prodigal  as  a  spendthrift  in  setting 
apart  for  education  the  money  accruing  to  the  state  from 
lotteries    and    auctions.     Money    easily    acquired    was    thus 
generously  devoted  to  a  noble  purpose.     Still,   the  General 
Assembly  of   the  period  was  merely  satisfying  a  demand  for 
public  schools  already  becoming  insistent. 

3.  Opportunity. — The  distribution  of  the  surplus  revenue  of 
the  United  States  under  the  law  of  1836  presented  an  oppor- 
tunity for  school  development,  which  the  General  Assembly  did 
not  fail  to  grasp. 

4.  Consciousness. — The  Barnard  act  of  1845  carried  respon- 
sibility home  to  the  town  taxpayer  through  its  requirement  that 
the  towns  should  supplement  state  appropriations.     The  growth 


332  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

of  public  consciousness  is  indicated  in  the  Constitution  of  1842, 
which  made  the  General  Assembly  a  school  committee  for  the 
state,  whose  duty  it  is  "to  promote  public  schools,  and  to  adopt 
all  means  which  they  may  deem  necessary  to  secure  to  the 
people  the  advantages  and  opportunity  of  education." 

5.  Consummation. — The    growing    sense    of    responsibility 
functioned  in  increased  appropriations,   rising  from  $10,000 
annually  to  $120,000  annually  by  the  state,  and  an  equivalent 
amount  required  of  the  towns.     The  structure  was  perfected 
when,  in  1882,  the  permission  previously  granted  towns  to 
maintain  schools  was  replaced  by  a  mandatory  provision  com- 
pelling them.     The  word  shall  was  substituted  for  may  in  the 
statutes. 

6.  Selection,  or    improvement   by   selection.     This   is   the 
process  now  in  progress,  by  which  the  state  encourages  specific 
improvements  by  appropriations  for  special  purposes. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  PERMANENT  SCHOOL  FUND. 


The  establishment  of  a  permanent  school  fund  was  fore- 
shadowed in  a  constitution  for  the  State  of  Rhode  Island 
adopted  in  convention  at  Newport  on  June  21,  1824,  which, 
however,  in  the  referendum,  failed  of  ratification  by  the  free- 
men. This  constitution  contained  an  article  entitled  "Of 
Education,"  which  read  as  follows: 

1.  A  fund  shall  be  created  from  all  monies  received  from 
taxes  on  licenses  granted  under  the  authority  of  this  state, 
for  the  support  of  free  schools,  which  shall  be  called  the  school 
fund,  and  shall  be  invested  and  remain  a  perpetual  fund,  and 
shall  continue  to  accumulate  until  the  interest  arising  therefrom, 
together  with  the  taxes  annually  paid  on  licenses,  shall  be 
sufficient  to  support  free  schools  at  least  three  months  in  each 
year  in  every  town  in  this  state. 

2.  All  charitable  donations  for  the  support  of  free  schools 
shall  be  invested  and  applied  agreeably  to  the  will  and  pleasure 
of  the  donors. 

3.  The   General   Assembly   shall   make   all   the  necessary 
provisions  by  law  for  carrying  this  article  into  effect;    but  no 
law  shall  ever  be  passed,  authorizing  said  fund  to  be  diverted 
to  any  other  use  than  the  support  of  free  schools  in  the  several 
towns  in  this  state,  as  provided  in  the  first  paragraph  of  this 
article. 

The  Act  of  1828. — The  debate  in  the  January  session  of  the 
General  Assembly  in  1828  indicates  that  those  who  dared  not 
oppose  openly  legislation  establishing  public  schools,  attempted 
to  prevent  immediate  action  by  offering  in  substitution  a  plan 
for  a  permanent  school  fund,  the  income  of  which  was  to  be 
applied  to  supporting  public  schools  only  when  sufficient  there- 


334  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

for  without  other  aid  from  the  state.  So  powerful  were  the 
leaders  of  this  disguised  opposition  that  a  provison  for  a  per- 
manent school  fund  appears  in  the  draft  of  the  act  reported 
from  committee;  they  were  unable,  however,  in  the  final  test  to 
carry  their  substitute,  but  their  argument  for  a  permanent  fund 
had  so  far  convinced  the  majority  that  when  the  vote  came  upon 
the  committee  report  favoring  a  permanent  school  fund,  the 
latter  also -received  the  support  of  the  majority.  Thus  the  act 
of  1828  provided,  not  only  state  support  for  public  schools,  but 
also  the  nucleus  of  a  permanent  school  fund,  to  which  $5000 
was  appropriated.  The  sections  of  the  act  of  1828  bearing 
upon  the  permanent  school  fund  are  as  follows : 

1.  Be  it  Enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  and  by  the 
authority  thereof  it  is  Enacted :  That  from  and  after  the  pass- 
ing of  this  act,  all  money  that  shall  be  paid  into  the  general 
treasury  by  managers  of  lotteries  or  their  agents,  also  all  money 
that  shall  be  paid  into  said  treasury  by  auctioneers  for  duties 
accruing  to  the  state,  shall  be  set  apart  and  paid  over  to  the 
several  towns  in  this  state  in  manner  hereinafter  mentioned, 
in  proportion  to  their  respective  population  under  the  age  of 
sixteen  years,  as  exhibited  in  the  census  provided  by  law  to  be 
taken  from  time  to  time  under  the  authority  of  the  United 
States,  always  adopting  for  said  ratio  the  census  next  pre- 
ceding the  tune  of  paying  out  each  annual  appropriation  of  said 
money  as  herein  provided,  to  be  by  said  towns  appropriated  to 
and  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  keeping  public  schools  and 
paying  the  expenses  thereof;  the  sum,  however,  hereby  appro- 
priated, to  be  paid  over  in  any  one  year,  not  to  exceed  $10,000. 

5.  And  be  it  further  Enacted :  That  the  General  Treasurer 
shall  keep  an  accurate  account  of  all  sums  of  money  paid  into 
the  general  treasury  by  lottery  managers  or  their  agents,  and 
by  auctioneers  for  duties  accruing  to  the  state,  and  shall  make 
a  report  thereof  to  the  General  Assembly  once  a  year,  to  wit, 
at  the  May  session,  particularly  setting  forth  the  sums  arising 
from  each  of  said  sources  during  the  preceding  year. 

8.  And  be  it  further  Enacted :  That  of  the  sum  now  in  the 
treasury  there  be  appropriated  and  set  apart  the  sum  of  $5000 
for  the  commencement  and  formation  of  a  permanent  fund 
for  the  support  of  public  schools;  and  for  that  purpose  the 
sum  of  $5000  shall  be  immediately,  or  as  soon  as  may  be,  in- 
vested by  the  General  Treasurer,  with  the  advice  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, by  purchase  or  subscription,  in  the  stock  of  some  safe 


THE    PERMANENT  FUND.  335 

and  responsible  bank;  to°  which  such  sum  shall  be  added,  and 
in  like  manner  invested  from  year  to  year,  all  the  monies  that 
shall  accrue  as  aforesaid  from  lotteries  and  auctions  over  and 
above  said  yearly  sum  of  $10,000;  and  all  donations  that  may 
be  made  to  said  fund  for  the  purposes  thereof,  and  the  dividends 
and  interest  that  shall  from  time  to  time  accrue  to  said  fund, 
shall  in  like  manner  be  added  thereto  and  invested;  but  when- 
ever, in  any  year,  the  amount  received  as  aforesaid  from  lotteries 
and  auctions  shall  fall  short  of  the  sum  of  $10,000  annually  to 
be  distributed,  the  dividends  and  interest  only  of  said  fund 
then  accrued,  or  so  much  thereof  as  shall  be  necessary,  shall 
be  added  to  the  last-named  sum,  and  paid  over  and  distributed 
according  to  the  provisions  of  this  act. 

9.  And  be  it  further  Enacted:  That  whenever  in  any  year 
the  money  paid  into  the  treasury  from  the  sources  provided  by 
this  act  shall  fall  short  of  said  sum  of  $10,000,  the  deficiency 
for  said  year  shall  be  made  good  from  any  money  in  the  treasury 
not  otherwise  appropriated. 

On  April  28,  1828,  the  General  Treasurer  purchased  for  the 
permanent  school  fund  91  shares  of  stock  of  the  Mechanics 
Bank  of  Providence,  of  the  par  value  of  $50  per  share,  paying 
therefor  $5000  and  $53,53  for  accrued  interest.  Meanwhile, 
on  January  22,  1828,  the  first  payments  of  money  appropriated 
to  the  new  account  for  support  of  schools  were  made  and  en- 
tered on  the  books  of  the  treasurer.  Up  to  April  30,  1828, 
$5538.01  had  been  paid  into  the  general  treasury  by  managers 
of  lotteries  and  auctioneers,  and  the  treasurer  was  thus  able  to 
begin  after  June  1,  1828,  paying  to  the  several  towns  the  shares 
in  the  school  appropriation  assigned  to  them  by  the  ratio  pro- 
vided by  the  act. 

Although  the  school  law  required  only  an  annual  report  at 
the  May  session,  the  treasurer  reported  semi-annually,  at  the 
May  and  October  sessions,  the  amounts  of  money  collected  and 
disbursed  under  the  act,  but  at  no  time  until  the  October  session, 
1830,  did  he  make  a  special,  particular  statement  covering  the 
operation  of  the  school  law  as  a  financial  measure.  His  entry 
of  October,  1829,  "Carried  forward  to  school  account,  $20,- 
282.80,"  refers,  not  to  the  condition  of  the  school  fund,  but  to 
the  total  of  other  treasury  receipts  "carried  forward"  for  the 


336  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

purpose  of  a  grand  total  including  the  receipts  of  school  money 
for  the  preceding  six  months.  His  report  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly at  the  October  session,  1830,  is  of  sufficient  importance  to' 
warrant  reproduction  just  as  he  presented  it — and  a  careful 
analysis.  It  follows: 

THE  FIRST  REPORT. 

The  following  abstract  shows  the  difference  in  the  amount 
collected  from  lotteries  granted  by  the  state  and  that  from  sales 
of  foreign  lottery  tickets: 

Received  from  managers  of  lotteries — 

From  October,  1827,  to  April  20,  1828 $7177.68* 

From  April,  1828,  to  October,  1828 5572 . 13* 

From  October,  1828,  to  April,  1829 5728 . 63 

From  April,  1829,  to  October,  1829 5666. 13 

From  October,  1829,  to  April,  1830 7241 . 61* 

From  April,  1830,  to  October  22,  1830 7647.42 


$39,033 . 60* 
.On  sale  of  foreign  lottery  tickets — 

From  October,  1827,  to  April  30,  1828 $424.97* 

From  April,  1828,  to  October,  1828 256.05* 

From  October,  1828,  to  April,  1829 294. 15 

From  April,  1829,  to  October,  1829 211 .48 

From  October,  1829,  to  April,  1830 ' 326. 16 

From  April,  1830,  to  October  22,  1830 270.28* 


$1783.09 
To  dealers  in  foreign  lottery  tickets  for  licenses — 

Number  and  amount  of  granted  by  town  councils,  from  Octo- 
ber, 1827,  to  October,  1830,  27  at  $100  each 2700 . 00 


$4483.09 
The  following  abstract  will  show — 

First,  the  amount  collected  from  the  passage  of  the  act  estab- 
lishing public  schools. 

Second,  the  amount  paid  for  annual  appropriations. 
Third,  interest  received  trom  monies  invested. 
Fourth,  the  amount  paid  for  said  schools. 

*  Errors. 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  337 

First,  receipts  appropriated  by  law  to  public  schools,  viz.: 

From  January,  1828,  to  October,  1828 $12,573.78 

From  October,  1828,  to  October,  1829 13,250.58* 

From  October,  1829,  to  October,  1830 17,465.21* 


$43,289.57* 
Second,  amount  paid  for  annual  appropriations — 

April  28,  1828,  paid  for  91  shares  Mechanics  Bank  in  P.  ...       $5053. 53 

August  27, 1829,  paid  for  90  shares  Mechanics  Bank  in  P 4914. 00 

July  31,  1830,  paid  for  100  shares  Mechanics  Bank  in  P 5400 . 00 


$15,367.53 
Third,  interest  received  from  monies  invested — 

Dividend,  1829,  to  July,  inclusive $477.75 

January,  1830,  to  January,  inclusive.  ...  318.50 

1830,  for  July  do,  inclusive 273.00 


$1069.25 

Fourth,  the  amount  paid  town  treasurers  for  public  schools. 
viz.: 

From  May,  1828,  to  May,  1829 $10,000.00 

From  May,  1829,  to  May,  1830 9952.82* 

From  May,  1830,  to  October,  1830 8417.53* 


$28,370.35* 

By  which  it  appears  that  so  far  from  there  being  a  balance 
unappropriated,  derived  from  the  school  fund,  there  is  a  deficit 
of  $1008.71  wanting  to  balance  the  account  of-  expenses  and 
investments,  namely: 

*Recapitulation — Receipts  as  above $43,289.57 

Dividends 1069.25 

Wanting 1008.71 


$45,367.53 

Expenditures — Investments $15,367.53 

$10,000,  three  years 30,000.00 


$45,367.53 
THOMAS  G.  PITMAN,  General  Treasurer. 


*  Errors. 


338  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

Reason  for  the  Report. — The  reason  for  the  making  of  this 
statement  at  the  October  session  appears  in  the  daily  newspaper 
reports  of  the  meetings  of  the  General  Assembly  in  October 
and  November,  1830.  When  the  treasurer's  account  was  first 
presented  to  the  House  of  Representatives  it  was  without  the 
abstract  of  the  condition  of  the  school  fund.  The  House  refused 
to  receive  the  report  because  it  did  not  comply  with  the  law 
requiring  an  abstract  summary  of  receipts  and  payments  by 
counties  and  a  classification  of  accounts.  Subsequently  the 
abstract  referring  to  the  school  fund  was  presented.  The 
American  of  November  2  gave  a  summary  of  the  more  im- 
portant figures,  with  this  comment:  "The  total  deficit  from 
the  appropriations  of  $10,000  per  annum  for  schools  in  three 
years  amounts  to  $1630.  This  the  interest  of  the  permanent 
fund  will  nearly  cover.  The  system,  therefore,  operated  ad- 
mirably well,  and  if  persevered  in  will  secure  to  the  children  of 
the  rising  generation  all  the  benefits  from  schools  that  can  be 
desired."  The  deficit  stated  by  the  treasurer  was  $1008.71. 
The  reporter  for  the  American  seems  to  have  confused  these 
figures  with  the  $1632.69  difference  between  the  $30,000  appro- 
priated and  the  $28,367.31  actually  paid  to  town  treasurers  for 
the  support  of  schools. 

No  further  action  upon  the  treasurer's  report  was  taken  until 
the  last  day  of  the  session,  when  the  Speaker  reminded  the  House 
that  the  report  of  the  General  Treasurer  had  not  been  received. 
In  the  debate  that  followed  it  appeared  that  the  House  was  still 
firm  in  its  conviction  that  the  report  was  not  in  proper  form, 
and  stood  ready  to  adhere  to  its  refusal  to  receive  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  was  said  that  the  General  Treasurer  professed  not 
to  understand  the  law,  or  its  requirements.  Members  of  the 
House  were  equally  positive  that  the  law  was  clear,  and  that 
the  Treasurer  was  at  fault.  At  this  point  a  peacemaker  arose. 
Mr.  Simmons  said:  "I  wrote  out  the  abstract  for  the  school 
fund,  and  no  doubt  if  any  gentleman  will  write  down  what  he 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  339 

wants,  the  Treasurer  will  fill  it  out."  Upon  the  suggestion  of 
the  Speaker,  while  the  House  was  still  in  doubt,  it  was  voted 
that  the  report  be  received  "for  printing  with  the  schedules." 

It  seems  clear,  therefore,  that  the  report  was  not  carefully 
drawn;  probably  it  was  hastily  filled  out  by  the  Treasurer.  The 
report  was  not  examined  by  a  committee  of  the  House,  and  it 
seems  likely  that  no  member  of  the  House  gave  it  careful  atten- 
tion. Consequently  glaring  errors  in  the  abstract  escaped  notice, 
and  the  newspapers  of  the  day  neglected  an  opportunity  to  lay 
bare  "a  political  scandal."  The  Treasurer,  apparently,  never 
verified  his  figures,  for  his  subsequent  reports  assumed  that  the 
statement  for  October,  1830,  was  accurate,  and  carried  forward 
the  errors. 

Errors  in  the  Report. — The  places  of  specific  error  in  the 
treasurer's  report  have  been  indicated  by  asterisks.  The 
amount  collected  from  managers  of  lotteries  from  April,  1828, 
to  October,  1828,  was  $5784.98;  the  treasurer  omitted  an  entry 
of  $212.85,  of  which  amount  there  are  several  entries  on  different 
dates.  From  the  total  collections  from  October,  1829,  to  April, 
1830,  he  omitted  $750,  recovered  by  the  state's  Attorney  General 
from  the  manager  of  a  lottery.  The  amount  given  as  collected 
from  October,  1827,  to  April  30,  1828,  is  irrelevant;  it  includes 
$3039.66  collected  previous  to  the  passage  of  the  school  act; 
for  the  period  subsequently  the  amount  collected  was  $4138.02. 
The  total  collections  from  managers  of  lotteries  from  January 
22,  1828,  to  October  22,  1830,  were  $36,956.79. 

The  second  table  presented  by  the  Treasurer  is  also  subject 
to  correction.  The  fees  paid  by  venders  of  foreign  lottery 
tickets  fiom  April,  1828,  to  October,  1828,  amounted  to  $452.19, 
that  is,  $196.14  more  than  the  Treasurer  stated.  The  amount 
given  for  the  period  from  April,  1830,  to  October  22,  1830,  is 
short  $48.43.  The  first  figures,  covering  the  period  from  Octo- 
ber, 1827,  to  April  30,  1828,  need  correction  by  limita- 
tion to  the  period  subsequent  to  January  22,  1828,  and 


340  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

should  read  $358.19.  The  total  receipts  from  venders  of  for- 
eign lottery  tickets  were  $1961.68,  levied  at  the  rate  of  one  per 
centum  on  total  sales,  as  prescribed  by  an  act  passed  at  the  Jan- 
uary session,  1828,  subsequently  to  the  enactment  of  the  school 
law.  The  same  act  authorized  towns  to  license  venders  of 
lottery  tickets  and  required  the  towns  to  collect  from  licensees 
$100  per  year  for  the  benefit  of  the  state.  The  Treasurer 
reported  27  such  licenses  up  to  the  time  of  his  statement. 

Foreign  Lotteries. — The  relevancy  of  the  question  which  the 
introduction  of  the  statement  suggests  had  been  asked,  that  is, 
whether  the  school  act  of  1828  carried  taxes  levied  on  sales  of 
foreign  lottery  tickets  and  on  venders  thereof  to  the  school 
appropriation,  appears  in  the  language  of  the  act  itself  The 
words  used  in  the  first  and  fifth  sections  of  the  school  act  are 
these:  "  All  monies  that  shall  be  paid  into  the  general  treasury 
by  managers  of  lotteries  or  their  agents,"  while  in  the  eighth 
section  the  words  used  are:  "All  monies  that  shall  accrue  as 
aforesaid  from  lotteries."  It  may  be  held  fairly  that  the  word 
"aforesaid"  in  the  eighth  section  carries  back  the  language 
there  to  previous  sections  for  interpretation,  and  that  a  close 
construction  of  the  words  used  in  the  first  and  fifth  sections 
would  exclude  from  the  provisions  of  the  school  act  venders  of 
foreign  lottery  tickets  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not  managers 
of  lotteries;  nor  were  they  agents  in  a  strictly  legal  sense.  It  is 
worthy  of  note,  too,  that  the  General  Assembly  received,  and 
its  accounting  committees  approved,  reports  from  the  Treasurer 
which  were  based  upon  the  distinction  indicated. 

Other  Errors. — Passing  to  the  second  part  of  the  treasurer's 
report,  the  amount  of  receipts  appropriated  .to  public  schools 
from  October,  1828,  to  October,  1829,  is  short  $2,  and  the 
amount  from  October,  1829,  to  October,  1830,  is  short  $100.50. 
The  following  table  shows  the  receipts  from  lotteries,  auctions 
and  dividends,  and  the  total  for  each  fiscal  year  (as  the  treasurer 
determined  it),  from  January  22,  1828,  to  October  22,  1830: 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  341 
Lotteries.      Auctions.     Dividends.          Totals. 

Jan.  22,  1828,  to  April,  1828.     $4138.02  $1399.99     

April,  1828,  to  October,  1828.       5784.98     1250.79     $12,573.78 

October,  1828,  to  April,  1829.       5728 .63      805 . 60     

April,  1829,  to  October,  1829.       5666.13       574.47  $477.75     13,252.58 

October,  1829,  to  April,  1830.       7991.61       619.13  318.50 

April,  1830,  to  October,  1830.       7647.42      716.05  273.00     17,565.71 


Totals $36,956.79  $5366.03  $1069.25   $43,392.07 

The  amounts  paid  for  stocks  are  given  accurately,  as  are  the 
receipts  from  dividends.  The  amount  paid  to  town  treas- 
urers for  public  school  support  from  May,  1829,  to  May,  1830, 
was  $9949.78;  in  his  abstract  the  Treasurer  has  included  $3.04 
for  postage  on  public  business,  which  it  does  not  appear  was 
school  business.  At  any  rate,  it  was  not  properly  charged  to 
the  school  appropriation. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  Treasurer's  recapitulation,  when 
based  upon  such  faulty  statistics,  must  be  erroneous;  and  it 
involves  a  blunder  more  ridiculous  and  inexplicable  even  than 
any  noted  heretofore.  His  statement  of  "receipts  appro- 
priated by  law  to  public  schools"  included  dividends  paid  on 
funds  invested;  and  still  in  his  recapitulation  of  receipts,  he 
adds  "dividends,  $1069.25."  Furthermore,  he  omitted  from 
his  calculation  of  receipts  the  $5000  appropriated  from  the 
treasury  in  January,  1828,  to  be  invested  "immediately  or  as 
soon  as  may  be,"  as  the  nucleus  of  a  permanent  school  fund, 
although  he  had  invested  this  money  and  reported  the  invest- 
ment as  a  payment.  Specifically,  then,  the  recapitulation  of 
receipts  shows  three  errors:  First,  the  omission  of  the  appro- 
priation of  $5000;  second,  a  discrepancy  of  $102.50  from  the 

• 

amount  shown  by  his  reports  in  the  Schedules;  third,  the  second 
introduction  of  $1069.25  received  as  dividends.  The  recapitu- 
lation, when  corrected,  should  read : 

Receipts — Appropriation,  January,  1828 $5000.00 

January,  1828,  to  October,  1830 43,392.07 


Total  receipts $48,392.07 


342  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

Expenditures — Investments $15,367 . 53 

Appropriations 30,000.00       $45,367.53 


Balance  in  school  fund,  uninvested .         $3024.54 

The  charging  of  appropriations  for  public  schools  at  the  round 
amount  of  $10,000  per  year,  when  smaller  amounts  were  actually 
paid  to  the  towns,  might  be  justified  on  the  theory  that,  as  the 
law  made  no  provision  for  transferring  money  forfeited  by  the 
towns  to  any  particular  account,  as  for  instance,  the  present 
law  carries  such  money  into  the  permanent  school  fund,  the 
money  not  claimed  reverted  to  the  state's  general  account. 
The  amount  involved  up  to  October,  1830,  was  $1632.69, 
which,  if  retained  as  part  of  the  school  fund,  would  make  the 
latter  $4657.23.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  several  towns  received 
payments  of  arrearages.  Mr.  Pitman's  successor  in  office 
reversed  the  practice  inaugurated  by  Mr.  Pitman,  and  charged 
appropriations  as  the  amounts  actually  paid  to  the  towns. 

A  Correct  Statement. — The  school  fund  account,  as  of  October, 
1830,  might  be  stated  in  this  way: 

Permanent  School  Fund — 

Appropriation,  January,  1828 $5000.00 

Excess  of  receipts  from  lotteries  and  auctions  over  $10,000 

annually,  three  years : 12,322 . 82 

Dividends  on  investments.  .  1069.25 


Total $18,392.07 

Investments,  actual  expenditures 15,367.53 


Balance  in  permanent  fund,  uninvested $3024 . 54 

Appropriations  not  claimed  by  towns 1632.69 

Par  value  of  school  fund  stock .*        14,100.00 

Whether  intentionally  or  carelessly,  the  General  Treasurer, 
by  "bookkeeping,"  had  transferred  from  the  school  fund  the 
$5000  originally  appropriated  for  it,  less  the  $1069.25  earned  as 
dividends,  which,  through  a  blunder,  he  credited  twice  to  re- 
ceipts. In  October,  1831,  he  made  a  second  abstract,  as  follows : 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  343 

Receipts,  October,  1830,  to  October,  1831:  $18,768.94 

Payments — Appropriation $10,000.00 

100  shares  Globe  Bank  stock 5065 . 00 

Wanting 1008.71        16,073.71 


Balance $2695.23 

In  the  year  1830-1831  the  payments  to  towns  were  actually 
$9255.49,  that  is,  $744.51  short  of  $10,000. 

Mr.  Pitman's  last  account  as  treasurer  and  his  last  abstract 
of  the  condition  of  the  school  fund  are  printed  in  the  Schedules 
for  June,  1832,  as  follows: 

Receipts,  October,  1831,  to  April,  1832 $15,864.64 

Payments,  100  shares  Globe  Bank  stock $5099. 17 

100  shares  Globe  Bank  stock 5025.00 

To  town  treasurers 2344 . 27       12,468 . 44 


Balance $3396.20 

The  two  balances,  October,  1831,  $2695.23,  and  April,  1832, 
$3396.20,  would  make  the  school  fund,  uninvested,  $6091.43. 
The  actual  condition  should  be  this: 

Excess  of  receipts  over  appropriations,  to  October,  1830.  . . .         $3024.54 

Actual  balance,  October,  1831,  $1008 . 71  plus  $2695 .23 3703 . 94 

Balance,  April,  1832 3396.20 


Total $10,124.68 

If  to  $10,124.68  are  added  $1632.69  and  $744.51,  that  is, 
$2377.20,  school  money  not  claimed  by  towns,  the  balance  in 
the  fund  would  be  $12,501.88.  There  was  in  the  state  treasury 
on  the  date  of  Mr.  Pitman's  last  report  only  $1730.23  in  cash, 
If  Mr.  Pitman  was  intentionally  attempting  to  reduce  the  school 
fund  to  a  minimum  limit,  perhaps  he  was  merely  travelling 
"the  easiest  way." 

Recapitulating,  a  corrected  statement  of  the  operation  of  the 
school  law  as  a  financial  measure  from  January,  1828,  to  April, 
1832,  is  as  follows: 


344  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 


Receipts.                               Paym 
Jan.,  1828,  appropriation..         $5000.00 
To  October,  1828  12.573.  78 

ents. 
To  towns,  1828  .  . 
To  towns,  1829  .  . 
To  towns,  1830.  . 
To  towns,  1831.  . 
To  towns,  1832  .  . 

$10,000.00 
9949.78 
8417.53 
9255.49 
2344.27 

To  October,  1829 

13,252  58 

To  October,  1830    .    .  . 

17,565.71 

To  October,  1831  

18,768.94 

To  April   1832 

15  864  64 

Total  receipts.  . 

Total 

$39,967.07 
30,556.70 

$83,025.65 

Investments.  .  . 

70  523  77 

Excess  of  receiots.  .  . 

Total  payments  .  . 

$70,523.77 

$12.501.88 

Errors  Corrected. — In  October,  1832,  the  new  General  Treas- 
urer, John  Sterne,  reported  that  the  anticipated  excess  of  gen- 
eral treasury  receipts  over  payments,  $4010.23,  had  been 
invested  in  stock  for  the  school  fund,  and  that  "A  particular 
account  of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  on  account  of  the 
public  schools  is  omitted  at  this  time,  the  act  to  establish  them 
directing  it  to  be  made  once  a  year  only,  to  wit,  at  the  May 
session  of  the  General  Assembly."  In  May,  1833,  he  reported: 
''The  receipts  since  the  passage  of  the  act  to  establish  public 
schools  from  sources  of  revenue  appropriated  for  their  support, 
and  including  the  sum  of  $5000  set  apart  by  that  act  out  of  the 
money  in  the  treasury  for  the  commencement  and  foundation 
of  a  permanent  fund,  exceeded,  on  May  1,  1832,  the  amount 
paid  for  their  support  and  the  amount  invested  for  that  fund, 
the  sum  of  $12^501.88."  No  detailed  statement  accompanies 
this  report;  but  Mr.  Sterne  had  corrected  all  of  Mr.  Pitman's 
errors. 

Before  passing  to  the  story  of  the  permanent  school  fund  under 
Mr.  Sterne's  administration,  a  word  should  be  said  of  the  re- 
markable receipts  of  school  revenue  for  the  period  from  October, 
1830,  to  April,  1832.  The  increased  receipts  resulted  from  an 
innovation.  The  older  practice  had  established  a  tax  on  lot- 
teries; the  new  policy  permitted  the  sale  for  definite  sums  of 
money  of  grants  or  licenses  to  conduct  lotteries.  Under  the 
school  laws  the  proceeds  accrued  to  the  support  of  public  schools 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  345 

or  to  the  increase  of  the  permanent  school  fund.  Consequently 
the  new  lotteries  were  designated  public  school  lotteries.  Three 
were  granted  in  the  period.  The  Providence  Journal  of  April 
16,  1832,  contained  this  comment: 

"It  is  well  known  that  this  fund  derives  its  chief  revenue  from 
lottery  grants.  The  state  has  for  several  years  received 
a  revenue  from  domestic  lotteries  and  sales  at  auction,  with 
which  they  have  extended  to  all  classes  in  the  community  the 
means  of  obtaining  a  good  education.  ...  A  grant  was 
made  at  the  last  May  session,  for  which  $10,000  has  been  paid 
into  the  state  treasury.  At  the  June  session  a  similar  applica- 
tion was  made  and  granted  on  similar  terms,  and  at  the  Jan- 
uary session  a  third  application  was  made  and  granted.  So 
that  in  one  year  the  sale  of  lottery  grants  has  put  into  the  treas- 
ury for  the  benefit  of  free  schools  $30,000.  .  .  ." 

A  NEW  TREASURER  AND  A  NEW  POLICY. 

Through  his  report  to  the  General  Assembly  at  the  May 
session,  1833,  General  Treasurer  John  Sterne  corrected  the 
erroneous  "bookkeeping"  of  his  predecessor,  which  had  reduced 
the  school  fund.  His  reports  of  October,  1832,  and  May,  1833, 
indicate  the  inauguration  of  a  policy  friendly  to  the  accumula- 
tion of  the  permanent  school  fund.  Thus  in  October,  1832,  and 
in  May,  1833,  he  reported  investment  for  the  permanent  school 
fund  of  all  the  revenue  of  the  state  in  excess  of  probable  de- 
mands, and  in  May,  1833,  he  credited  to  the  school  money  ac- 
count interest  earned  on  deposits  of  state  revenue,  on  the  whole- 
some theory  that  while  the  state  was  indebted  to  the  school  fund, 
treasury  balances  belonged  to  the  fund  and  should  earn  interest 
for  it.  His  account  for  May,  1833,  follows: 

There  has  been  received  during  the  year  ending  April  29, 
1833— 

From  managers  of  lotteries .  $15,418 . 62 

From  auctioneers,  for  duty  on  sales 555 . 50 

For  dividends  on  school  fund  stock 2121 . 00 

For  interest  on  deposits  of  state  revenue 158 . 35 


Making $18,253.47 


346  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

The  payments  have  been — 

For  support  of  schools $9856 . 40 

For  bank  stock  for  permanent  school  fund..  .  .  10,160.83 
For  100  maps  of  the  state,  which  by  law  was 

payable  out  of  the  duty  of  one  per  cent  paid 

into  the  treasury  on  the  amount  of  the 

scheme  of  a  lottery  granted  to  J.  S 1000.00       21,017.23 


The  receipts  fall  short  of  the  payments  the  sum  of $2763 . 76 

Then  follows  his  statement  of  the  school  fund  as  of  May  1, 
1832,  showing  a  balance  of  $12,501.88,  from  which  the  excess 
of  payments  for  May,  1833,  is  deducted,  leaving  a  balance  of 
$9738.12  due  from  the  state.  The  treasury  balance  of  even 
date  was  $3975.23. 

His  report  closes  with  this  appraisal  of  the  permanent  school 
fund  investments: 
The  permanent  school  fund  consists  of — 

282  shares  Mechanics  Bank,  at  par,  $50 $14,100.00 

500  shares,  Globe  Bank,  at  par,  $50 25,000.00 


$39,100.00 

The   cost   of   stock,    that   is,   the   actual   investment,   was 
,717.53. 


Financial  Stress. — The  reader  who  has  had  the  patience  to 
tread  the  intricacies  of  the  array  of  figures  already  presented 
and  who  has  gleaned  from  them  the  facts  which  indicate  the 
nature  of  the  financial  problems  with  which  state  treasurers 
were  dealing  in  the  decade  beginning  with  1828,  will  find  further 
information  in  the  following  comparison  of  treasury  balances  and 
balances  due  the  school  fund.  The  treasury  balance  in  each 
instance  is  the  cash  actually  in  the  Treasurer's  strong  box  or 
subject  to  his  draft.  It  should  include  the  balance  due  the 
school  fund,  and,  if  the  state  were  solvent,  it  should  equal  or 
exceed  the  latter.  The  larger  balance  in  each  instance  is 
printed  in  black  type;  the  predominance  of  black  type  in  the 
school  fund  column  shows  at  a  glance  the  financial  stress  of  the 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  347 

period.  After  1831  school  money  reports  were  made  annually 
in  May,  and  in  the  table  the  school  fund  balances  for  October 
are  omitted. 

School.  State.  School.  State. 

May,  1828 .  .  $5484 . 48  $9815 . 60  October,  1828 . .   $2520 . 25  $11,731 . 16 

May,  1829 .  .  9054 . 58  8854 . 05  October,  1829 . .       909 . 05      5985 . 48 

May,  1830 . .  9838 . 29  7591 . 78  October,  1830 .  .     4657 . 23      5115 . 32 

May,  1831..  9546.48  2660. 15  October,  1831.  .     9105.68      6824.11 

May,  1832..  12,501.88      5758.43  Otcober,  1832 4114.58 

May,  1833 .  .  9738 . 12      3975 . 23  October,  1833 5321 . 44 

May,  1834 .  .  12,894 . 30      4097 . 02  October,  1834 12,523 . 56 

May,  1835..  6570.80      6155 . 42  October,  1835 . 11,776.38 

May,  1836 . .  6700 . 87      7467 . 79  October,  1836 15,248 . 17 

May,  1837.  .  10,636.90   13,185.24  October,  1837 — 

Treasury  Empty. — In  October,  1837,  the  General  Treasurer 
reported  that  the  state  treasury  was  empty,  and  that  he  had 
borrowed  from  the  Globe  Bank  $2816.92  to  meet  current  de- 
mands. After  1837  treasury  balances  as  reported  are  not  true 
balances;  they  were  more  than  counter-balanced  by  loans 
negotiated  by  the  General  Treasurer  under  statutory  authority. 
The  disappearance  of  the  treasury  balance  in  1837  is  explained 
by  increased  expenditures,  the  principal  item  of  which  was  the 
cost  of  construction  of  a  state  prison  on  the  site  now  occupied 
by  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School. 

In  the  table  the  October  balances,  generally,  are  more 
favorable  to  the  state  than  are  the  May  balances.  So  far  as 
school  money  was  concerned,  the  statements  in  October  showed 
the  fund  reduced  by  payment  of  the  bulk  of  the  amount  appor- 
tioned to  the  towns  and  payable  after  the  preceding  June  1. 
The  showing  in  October  is  misleading.  Unless  an  investment 
of  funds  were  made  between  May  and  October,  the  school  fund 
balance  should,  at  least,  equal  the  balance  in  May.  It  was 
entirely  wrong  to  charge  payments  after  May  1  to  the  school 
fund  accumulated  in  the  previous  fiscal  year.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  the  school  law  required  a  report  on  the  condition 
of  the  school  fund  annually  at  the  May  session,  and  thus  fixed 
the  termination  of  the  fiscal  year  at  the  end  of  April.  Balances 


348  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

remaining  in  the  fund  April  30  should  be  invested  for  the  per- 
manent fund,  and  payments  to  towns,  beginning  June  1,  should 
be  met  from  the  revenue  of  the  fiscal  year  in  which  they  were 
made,  any  deficiency  of  revenue  to  be  met  from  the  general 
treasury.  Treasurer  Pitman's  practice  reversed  the  process 
prescribed  by  law,  while  his  "bookkeeping"  tended  still  further 
to  obscure  actual  conditions. 

The  Treasurer's  Report. — Treasurer  Sterne,  in  his  report  to 
the  May  session,  1833,  informed  the  General  Assembly  that  the 
state  owed  the  school  fund  $9728.12.*  In  1834  a  clear  statement 
of  the  condition  of  the  treasury  was  followed  by  a  request  that 
the  General  Assembly  instruct  him  with  reference  to  future 
procedure.  His  statement  shows  receipts  for  the  year  from  all 
sources  of  school  revenue  amounting  to  $13,267.72,  and  pay- 
ments of  $10,111.54  to  town  treasurers,  leaving  an  excess  of 
school  revenue  for  the  year  of  $3156.18.  Then  follows  this 
comment : 

"It  appears  from  the  preceding  statements,  there  is  sufficient 
money  now  in  the  treasury  to  invest  the  unexpended  balance 
of  the  school  money  received  during  the  year,  but  there  would 
remain  only  the  sum  of  $940.84. 

"Although  that  portion  of  the  revenue  of  the  year  which  is 
applicable  to  defray  the  current  expenses  has  exceeded  by 
about  $600  the  revenue  derived  from  the  same  sources  in  the 
year  ending  in  April,  1833,  still  there  is  a  deficiency  of  $3034.39. 

.  .  .  Within  the  first  fortnight  of  the  present  financial 
year  the  demands  on  the  treasury  for  salaries,  pay  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  General  Assembly  and  other  claims  will  amount  to 
about  $4500.  The  receipts  during  the  same  time,  exclusive 
of  school  money,  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  exceed  $2500,  which 
will  leave  the  treasury  in  such  condition,  if  the  balance  of  the 
school  money  of  the  past  year  is  invested  immediately,  as  the 
law  requires,  that  a  payment  of  a  portion  of  the  demands  upon 
it  must  be  postponed  until  sufficient  revenue  of  the  present 
year  can  be  collected  to  pay  them. 

"The  disposable  revenue  of  the  state,  or  that  portion  of  it 
which  is  alone  applicable  to  defray  current  expenses,  has  not 
in  any  year  since  the  establishment  of  public  schools,  except 

*  The  amount  should  be  $9738.12. 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  349 

the  year  ending  in  April,  1833,  been  sufficient  for  that  purpose. 
In  consequence  of  which,  it  has  been  the  practice  to  supply  the 
deficiency  out  of  the  revenue  set  apart  for  support  of  schools, 
until  the  sum  thus  applied  to -the  payment  of  expenses  for 
which  they  were  not  intended  amounts,  in  April,  1833,  to 
$9728.12,  and  if  the  surplus  of  the  past  year  is  not  invested, 
amount  now  to  $12,884.30*  This  practice  is  not  authorized 
by  any  existing  law;  yet  the  fact  of  its  having  so  many  times 
met  the  approbation  of  and  been  sanctioned  by  the  General 
Assembly  furnishes  just  ground  of  doubt  as  to  which  course 
the  General  Treasurer  ought  to  pursue.  I,  therefore,  respect- 
fully request  the  General  Assembly  to  instruct  me  whether  the 
unexpended  balance  of  the  school  money  received  during  the 
year  just  ended,  shall  be  added  to  the  permanent  school  fund 
or  applied  to  the  payment  of  any  claim  against  the  state  that 
may  be  presented.  .  .  ." 

At  the  June  session,  1834,  the  committee  on  accounts,  to 
which  had  been  referred  the  Treasurer's  report,  supplemented 
its  certificate  of  accuracy  with  this  reference  to  the  Treasurer's 
statement : 

"The  committee  deem  it  to  be  within  the  range  of  the  duties 
assigned  to  them  to  report  to  the  General  Assembly  that  to 
meet  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  state,  the  General  Treasurer 
has  been  obliged  to  use  a  large  amount  belonging  to  the  school 
fund.  The  committee  find  that  no  investment  of  money  be- 
longing to  the  school  fund  has  been  made  since  1832 ;  and  that 
on  the  30th  day  of  April,  1834,  there  appears  to  have  been 
diverted  from  its  appropriate  object  the  sum  of  $12,894.30  of 
the  school  fund,  which  has  been  from  time  to  time,  during  a 
period  of  several  years,  expended  in  meeting  the  ordinary 
demands  upon  the  treasury.  The  committee  wish  it  to  be 
distinctly  understood  that  in  this  matter  they  attach  no  blame 
to  any  one.  The  remedy  for  the  evil  suggested  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  legislature,  and  the  application  of  that  remedy  ought,  in 
the  opinion  of  your  committee,  to  be  promptly  made." 

The  General  Assembly  Apathetic. — The  problem  was  thus 
placed  squarely  before  the  General  Assembly.  One  of  two 
remedies  was  available  if  the  General  Assembly  would  change 
the  practice  forced  upon  the  Treasurer.  It  might  either  order 
repayment  of  the  balances  due  the  school  fund,  recouping  the 
general  treasury  by  levying  new  or  increased  taxes  or  by  nego- 

*  The  figures  should  be  $9738.12  and  $12,894.30. 


350  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

tiating  a  loan;  or  it  might  amend  the  law  governing  the  accumu- 
lation of  the  permanent  school  fund.  The  General  Assembly 
chose  neither  remedy;  it  did  nothing.  In  the  light  of  history 
in  subsequent  years  the  General  Assembly  had  been  too  gen- 
erous, probably,  in  drafting  the  act  of  1828,  but  it  was  not 
prepared  to  amend  that  law.  The  provision  for  an  annual 
distribution  of  $10,000  for  aid  to  public  schools  was  within  the 
revenue,  but  the  state  was  scarcely  able  to  dispense  altogether 
with  the  revenue  specifically  set  aside  for  the  permanent  school 
fund.  Without  attempting  to  palliate  the  weakness  which  the 
General  Assemblies  of  the  later  portion  of  the  period  under  review 
displayed  in  dealing  with  this  financial  problem,  one  cannot  fail 
to  appreciate  the  generous  spirit  with  which  the  state  undertook 
in  1828  to  provide  aid  for  public  schools. 

In  October,  1834,  the  General  Treasurer  again  called  attention 
to  the  condition  of  the  treasury;  his  tone  was  more  optimistic 
than  earlier  in  the  same  year.  He  wrote: 

"The  petitioners  for  the  lottery  granted  at  the  last  January 
session  having  neglected  to  comply  with  the  conditions  of  the 
grant,  there  is  not  at  present  any  lottery  from  which  a  revenue 
is  derived. 

"It  is  estimated  that  the  whole  of  the  revenue  of  the  present 
financial  year  appropriated  by  law  for  the  support  of  public 
schools  will  not  exceed  $5500,  which  will  leave  a  deficiency  of 
$4500  to  be  paid  out  of  other  money. 

"That  portion  of  the  revenue  of  the  present  year  which  is 
applicable  to  defray  the  current  expenses  will  so  much  exceed 
the  revenue  derived  from  the  same  source  of  any  former  year 
that,  with  the  addition  of  the  balance  in  the  treasury  on  the 
30th  of  April  last,  the  deficiency  in  this  year's  school  money 
can  be  supplied,  the  unexpended  balance  of  last  year's  school 
money  be  invested,  and,  unless  the  current  expenses  of  the  state 
shall  be  increased  to  an  extraordinary  amount,  there  will  remain 
in  the  treasury  on  the  30th  of  April,  1835,  a  balance  of  about 
$3000." 

The  receipts  from  lotteries  in  1834-5,  as  predicted  by  the 
treasurer,  declined,  but,  as  a  new  licensee  for  a  state  lottery 
was  found,  $5000  was  realized  from  this  source.  School  reve- 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  351 

nues  for  the  year  amounted  to  $8192.72,  leaving  a  balance  of 
$1807.28  to  be  taken  from  the  general  treasury  to  round  out 
the  $10,000  to  be  apportioned  to  the  towns.  The  towns  re- 
ceived $9967.94.  The  treasurer  bought  122  shares  of  Globe 
Bank  stock  for  the  school  fund,  paying  $6323.50  therefor,  and 
reduced  the  state's  indebtedness  to  the  school  fund  to  $6570.80. 
In  1835-6  receipts  of  school  revenue  were  $13,626.41,  payments 
for  the  support  of  schools  were  $9824.34,  and  for  72  shares  of 
Globe  Bank  stock,  bought  as  an  investment,  $3672.  The 
excess  of  revenue  over  payments  was  $130.07,  and  the  state's 
indebtedness  was  increased  that  much,  standing  at  $6700.87. 
In  the  following  year  receipts  exceeded  expenditures  by  $3936.03 
making  the  state's  indebtedness  $10,636.90. 

The  Fund  Disappears. — In  May,  1837,  the  treasury  balance 
was  $13,185.24,  and  the  school  fund  was,  therefore,  in  the 
treasury,  but  in  October,  1837,  the  treasury  was  empty.  The 
uninvested  portion  of  the  school  fund  had  been  used  to  liquidate 
current  liabilities  of  the  state,  part  of  which  arose  from  the 
building  of  the  new  state  prison. 

In  1839  a  new  General  Treasurer,  William  S.  Nichols,'  re- 
ported the  purchase  of  50  shares  of  Mechanics  Bank  stock  at  a 
cost  of  $2689.17,  but  that  the  school  revenue  for  the  year 
1838-9  still  exceeded  payments  by  $1150.55.  He  also  reported 
that  a  careful  examination  of  receipts  and  expenditures,  made 
at  the  request  of  the  finance  committee,  showed  a  balance  of 
$14,675.75  due  the  school  fund  on  April  30,  1838.  This  balance 
is  $52.97  in  excess  of  the  amount  reported  by  General  Treasurer 
Sterne;  the  nature  of  the  error  in  previous  reports  was  not 
disclosed  by  Treasurer  Nichols,  and  it  does  not  appear  in  the 
Schedules.  Treasurer  Sterne,  who  returned  to  office  in  1839, 
reverted  to  the  $14,622.78  reported  in  his  earlier  statement. 
The  excess  of  revenue  in  1838-9  carried  the  fund  to  $15,826.30, 
according  to  Nichols,  or  $15,773.33,  according  to  Sterne. 


352  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

The  table  on  page  344,  recapitulating  the  operation  of  the 
school  act  of  1828  as  a  financial  measure,  may  be  extended  to 
cover  the.  period  from  1832  to  1839,  as  follows: 

Receipts.  Payments. 

Excess  to  1832 $12,501.88    To  towns,  1833 $9,856.40 

To  May,  1833 18,253.47    To  towns,  1834 10,111.54 

To  May,  1834 13,267 . 72     To  towns,  1835 *8,192 . 72 

To  May,  1835 8,192. 72     To  towns,  1836 9,824. 34 

To  May,  1836 13,626.41     To  towns,  1837 10,111.54 

To  May,  1837 14,047. 57     To  towns,  1838 10,032. 06 

To  May,  1838 14,017. 94    To  towns,  1839 10,145. 52 

To  May,  1839 13,985.24 

Total  to  towns $68,274. 12 

Total $107,892.95     Investments $22,845.50 

Lottery  tax  remitted. .  .  .      1,000. 00 

Total  payments $91,119.62 


Net $106,892.95 

Less  payments 91,119.62 


State's  debt $15,773.33 


*Towna  received  $9967.94,  the  excess  being  charged  to  the  general  treasury. 

In  the  12  years  from  1828  to  1839  the  revenue  applicable  to 
public  schools  had  amounted  to  $177,416.72,  of  which  $108,241.19 
had  been  paid  to  towns  and  $53,402.20  had  been  invested  in  stock 
for  the  permanent  school  fund.  In  1839  the  permanent  fund 
investment  consisted  of  332  shares  of  stock  of  the  Mechanics 
Bank,  par  value,  $16,600;  and  694  shares  of  stock  of  the  Globe 
Bank,  par  value,  $34,700;  total,  $51,300.  The  state  owed  the 
school  fund  the  uninvested  balance,  amounting  to  $15,773.33. 

"  Conservator  of  the  School  Fund." — While  it  is  anticipating  the 
story  of  the  permanent  school  fund  under  a  new  law,  and  under 
a  treasurer  with  a  distinctly  novel  theory  of  finance,  it  is  per- 
missible to  round  out  at  this  point  the  administration  of  John 
Sterne,  which  ended  in  1840,  with  the  relevant  portions  of  his 
last  report.  This  showed  an  excess  of  revenue  in  1839-40 
applicable  to  the  permanent  school  fund  of  $3932.79,  which 
brought  the  indebtedness  of  the  state  to  the  school  fund  on 
April  30,  1840,  to  $19,706.12. 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  353 

Throughout  his  administration  John  Sterne  had  been  a  con- 
scientious conservator  of  the  permanent  school  fund.  On  taking 
office  he  had  rectified  the  errors  of  his  predecessor,  He  had 
credited  to  the  fund  every  dollar  of  revenue  belonging  to  it. 
He  had  reported  to  the  General  Assembly  the  financial  em- 
barrassment produced  by  a  revenue  inadequate  to  meet  the 
current  general  expenses  of  the  state.  He  had  invested  treasury 
balances  for  the  fund  whenever  these  were  available.  His  was 
an  honorable  record.  He  well  deserves  the  title  "Conservator 
of  the  School  Fund." 

A  NEW  LAW.    A  NEW  TREASURER.     A  NEW 
POLICY. 

A  fresh  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  permanent  school  fund 
opens  with  the  election  of  Stephen  Cahoone  as  General  Treasurer 
in  1840,  but  its  beginnings  reach  back  to  an  earlier  period.  In 
1836  Congress  voted  to  deposit  the  surplus  revenue  of  the 
United  States  in  the  treasuries  of  the  several  states,  subject  to 
recall  and  repayment  upon  demand.  At  the  October  session 
in  the  same  year  the  General  Assembly  authorized  the  General 
Treasurer  to  receive  Rhode  Island's  allotment  of  the  "public 
deposits/'  appointed  a  commission  to  loan  the  money  to  the 
state  banks  at  five  per  cent,  interest,  and,  under  the  leadership 
of  Thomas  Wilson  Dorr,  then  a  Representative  from  Provi- 
dence, voted  that  the  income  from  the  deposit  money  should  be 
distributed  to  the  towns  of  the  state  in  the  same  ratio  as  the 
school  money,  to  be  used  exclusively  for  the  support  of  public 
schools. 

Law  of  1839. — In  1839  a  new  school  law  was  enacted,  the 
sections  governing  the  permanent  school  fund  being  as  follows: 

Sec.  1.  The  annual  income  of  money  deposited,  or  that 
may  be  deposited,  with  this  state  by  the  United  States  in  pur- 
suance of  "An  Act  to  Regulate  Deposits  of  the  Public  Money," 
passed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  and  approved 
June  23,  1836,  shall  annually  be'  paid  over  to  the  several  towns 


354  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  public  schools,  in  manner  here- 
after provided. 

Sec.  2.  To  the  money  derived  from  said  source  shall  j  be 
annually  added  enough  from  any  money  in  the  treasury  not 
otherwise  specially  appropriated,  to  make  up  the  sum  of  $25,000, 
to  be  annually  paid  out  for  the  purpose  aforesaid.  The  money 
received  by  the  state  from  managers  of  lotteries  or  their  agents, 
or  from  auctioneers  for  auction  duties  accruing  to  the  state,  shall 
be  hereafter  annually  appropriated  to  pay  the  debt  now  due 
from  the  general  treasury  to  the  permanent  school  fund,  until 
said  debt  is  paid:  After  which  time  the  revenue  derived  from 
these  sources  shall  be  applied  to  the  increase  of  said  fund.  .  . 

Sec.  26.  All  general  acts  heretofore  passed  relating  to  the 
public  schools  excepting  so  much  of  the  eighth  section  of  "An 
Act  to  Establish  Public  Schools,"  passed  at  the  January  session, 
A.  D.  1828,  which  relates  to  the  permanant  school  fund,  as  is  not 
inconsistent  with  this  act,  are  hereby  repealed :  Provided,  that 
everything  done  under  said  act  shall  be  valid,  and  all  things 
omitted  or  neglected  to  be  done  shall  be  punished  by  the  same 
penalties  and  forfeitures  as  if  this  act  had  not  been  passed. 

Its  Interpretation. — Under  the  act  of  1828  the  sources  of 
increase  of  the  permanent  school  fund  had  been:  1.  The  excess 
of  revenue  from  managers  of  lotteries  and  auctioneers  over 
$10,000  annually.  2.  Dividends  earned  on  investments  of  the 
permanent  school  fund,  except  so  much  of  these  as  might  be 
neeeded  in  any  year  to  round  out  an  even  $10,000  of  school 
revenue.  Treasurer  Sterne  had  added  to  the  fund,  temporarily, 
portions  of  the  annual  apportionment  unclaimed  by  the  towns, 
and  also  interest  on  deposits  of  the  state  revenue  in  the  period 
when  treasury  balances  were  insufficient  to  pay  the  indebted- 
ness of  the  state  to  the  school  fund.  The  new  act  made  the 
income  from  the  public  deposits  a  primary  source  of  school 
revenue,  and  provided  for  the  repayment  of  the  state's  debt 
to  the  permanent  school  fund  from  the  revenue  derived  from 
auctions  and  lotteries,  and  the  application  of  this  revenue 
thereafter  to  the  increase  of  the  fund.  With  civic  sentiment 
crystallizing  in  opposition  to  lotteries,  it  seemed  unlikely  that 
these  would  continue  for  many  years  longer  a  prolific  source  of 
income;  the  new  Constitution  of  1842-3  abolished  lotteries. 
So  much  of  the  law  as  referred  to  lotteries  and  auctions  is  clear; 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  355 

what  disposition  had  the  General  Assembly  provided  for  the 
income  from  investments  of  the  permanent  school  fund?  This 
source  of  revenue  was  not  mentioned  specifically  in  the  act  of 
1839,  but  it  seems  reasonably  certain  that  section  26  of  that  act 
carried  into  the  new  law  so  much  of  section  8  of  the  act  of  1828 
as  provided  for  the  addition  of  income  from  the  fund  to  the  fund 
itself.  This  was  the  construction  placed  upon  the  act  of  1839 
by  Treasurer  Sterne,  whose  statement  in  1840  showed :  Income 
from  public  deposit  money,  $18,991.14,  to  which  must  be  added 
$6008.86  from  the  general  treasury  to  make  $25,000  for  appor- 
tionment. The  permanent  school  fund  earned  dividends 
amounting  to  $3591,  and  the  deposited  state  revenue  earned 
interest  amounting  to  $446.95,  which,  less  payment  of  arrears  of 
apportionments,  netted  $3932.79  applicable  to  increasing  the 
permanent  school  fund,  making  the  state's  debt  to  the  latter  on 
April  30,  1840,  $19,706.12.  potteries  yielded  $9000,  and 
auctioneers  paid  $682.75  into  the  treasury,  making  the  amount 
"appropriated  to  pay  the  debt  now  due  from  the  general  treas- 
ury to  the  permanent  school  fund"  $9682.75.  Of  this  sum  the 
treasurer  reported  that  he  had  applied  $4181.66  to  the  payment 
of  current  expenses  of  the  state,  and  that  he  held  the  balance 
$5501.09  in  the  treasury,  that  being  all  the  money  on  hand 
except  interest  on  the  public  deposits.  Treasurer  Sterne, 
unable  to  comply  with  the  law's  requirement,  reported  the 
fact.  It  remained  for  his  successor  in  office  to  invent  a  method 
of  repaying  the  state's  indebtedness  to  the  school  fund  with 
revenue  no  more  adequate — less  adequate,  indeed — to  meet 
the  demands  upon  the  state  treasury. 

How  the  State  "Repaid"  its  Debt. — Treasurer  Cahoone's  first 
report  of  the  operation  of  the  school  act  is  as  follows : 

Interest  and  dividends  on  public  deposits $17,084 . 27 

Interest  on  deposits  of  state  revenue 720 . 13 

Dividends  on  permanent  school  fund  stock 4303 . 00 

Revenue  not  otherwise  appropriated 2892 . 60 


Total  school  appropriation $25,000.00 


356  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

Received  from  managers  of  lotteries $9000 . 00 

Received  from  auctioneers  for  duties 274 . 85 


Total $9274.85 

Deduct  deficit  in  school  revenue .  .  2892 . 60 


Balance  applicable  to  debt  of  state  to  school  fund $6382 . 25 

Debt  due  from  state  April  30,  1840 19,706. 12 


Net  indebtedness  April  30,  1841 • $13,323.87 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  Treasurer  added  to  the  interest  earned 
on  public  deposits,  the  dividends  on  stock  held  for  the  perma- 
nent school  fund  and  interest  on  deposits  of  the  state  revenue, 
altogether  $5023.13,  which  should  have  been  credited  to  in- 
creasing the  school  fund.  He  reduced  the  revenue  from  lot- 
teries and  auctions  applicable  to  payment  of  the  debt  to  the 
school  fund,  by  the  amount  taken  from  the  general  treasury  to 
round  out  the  annual  school  appropriation  of  $25,000.  The 
reason  for  this  does  not  appear  in  his  report,  but  probably  he 
considered  the  $2892.60  taken  from  the  general  treasury  as 
part  of  the  lottery  and  auction  money.  He  then  charged  off 
the  debt  due  to  the  school  fund  the  amount  received  from 
auctions  and  lotteries,  thus  reduced,  $6382.25;  but  there  is 
nothing  to  show  that  $6382.25,  or  any  other  sum,  was  actually 
used  to  pay  this  debt,  or  set  aside  for  the  school  fund,  or  in- 
vested. 

Fearful  Finance. — The  man  who  saves  five  dollars  per  week 
from  his  wages  by  opening  a  new  account  on  his  books,  and  who 
finishes  the  year  with  $260  saved  but  with  no  more  money  in 
hand  than  at  the  beginning,  would  have  done  only  half  of  what 
Treasurer  Cahoone  had  accomplished.  If  the  same  man  had 
set  aside  five  dollars  per  week  to  pay  his  debts,  and  had  can- 
celled these  merely  by  transfer  of  accounts  and  still  had  not 
parted  with  a  penny,  he  would  have  paralleled  the  feat  of  Treas- 
urer Cahoone — but  would  have  a  host  of  creditors  at  his  doors. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Treasurer  Cahoone  had  not  paid  any  part 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  357 

of  the  state's  indebtedness  to  the  school  fund,  the  cancellation 
of  which  he  began  thus  systematically  in  1841.  In  the  light 
of  this  understanding  of  his  altogether  novel  financial  policy, 
his  scruple  in  deducting  from  the  auction  and  lottery  money  the 
amount  taken  to  make  up  the  school  appropriation  is  inex- 
plicable, and  almost  as  ridiculous  a  blunder  as  Treasurer  Pit- 
man's double  credit  of  income  in  1830.  Recapitulating  briefly: 
Treasurer  Qahoone  had  diverted  from  the  school  fund  $5023.13 
of  money  by  law  appropriated  to  its  increase,  and  he  had  can- 
celled $6382.25  of  the  debt  due  the  school  fund  without  actual 
repayment.  His  dereliction  might  well  have  amounted  to 
$2892.60  more! 

The  report  of  1842  shows  a  further  similar  " reduction"  in  the 
state's  indebtedness  to  $8672.77.  No  doubt  the  indebtedness 
would  have  been  cancelled  completely  within  the  ensuing  year 
or  two  had  not  the  treasurer  after  1842  made  his  reports  in 
conformity  to  an  act  passed  at  the  June  session,  1842, 
section  3  of  which  directed  that  "The  General  Treasurer 
shall  present  with  his  semi-annual  report  at  every  May  session, 
in  addition  to  the  statements  now  or  hereinbefore  required,  a 
statement  of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  for  the  whole  of  the 
preceding  year,  classified  according  to  law.  He  shall  also 
report  at  every  May  session  the  receipts  and  expenditures  on 
account  of  schools,  and  the  school  fund,  under  appropriate 
heads,  together  with  the  state  and  amount  of  said  fund,  and 
how  the  same  is  invested.  .  .  ."  The  Treasurer's  report 
for  1843  contained  a  statement  of  receipts  and  expenditures  on 
account  of  schools,  and  of  the  condition  and  amount  of  the 
permanent  school  fund,  that  is,  a  list  of  and  the  par  value  of 
stocks  held  therefor.  But  in  the  report  there  was  no  mention 
of  receipts  and  expenditures  on  account  of  the  school  fund. 
Perhaps  the  Treasurer  interpreted  the  law  with  emphasis  on 
the  comma  after  schools,  making  "and  the  school  fund"  a 


358  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

direct  object  of  "report,"  instead  of  object  of  the  preposition 
"of." 

The  subsequent  annual  reports  of  Treasurer  Cahoone,  from 
1844  to  1851,  were  similar  in  form  to  the  report  for  1843.  The 
permanent  school  fund  appeared  in  each  report  as  consisting 
of  bank  stock  valued  at  $51,300.  Each  annual  report  was 
"audited"  and  approved  by  a  committee  of  the  General 
Assembly. 

An  Honest  Man,  Nevertheless.  — In  May,  1851,  Mr.  Cahoone 
closed  his  final  report  as  General  Treasurer  with  this  statement : 

"The  balance  in  the  treasury  on  the  23rd  ultimo,  as  above 
stated,  appears  to  be  but  $2611.92,  when  in  fact  there  was  in 
the  treasury  $8067.31,  which  last-mentioned  sum  I  am  ready 
to  pay  to  my  successor.  My  health  for  some  months  past  has 
been  so  poor  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  make  that  thorough 
search  to  discover  the  error  that  I  otherwise  would  have  done. 
It  is  confidently  believed  that  the  error  will  be  detected  when 
my  account  shall  be  audited,  and  that  it  will  be  found  to  have 
originated  in  inadvertant  omission  to  enter  credits  to  the 
amount  of  the  error." 

Under  date  of  May  31,  1851,  the  auditing  committee  reported 
to  the  January  session,  1852,  that  it  was  unable  to  detect  the 
error,  and  added : 

"The  committee  deem  it  to  be  nothing  more  than  an  act 
of  simple  justice  to  say  that  notwithstanding  the  very  ad- 
vanced age  of  Mr.  Cahoone,  the  late  General  Treasurer,  and 
the  severe  indisposition  he  labored  under  for  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  past  year,  the  duties  of  the  office  have  been  well  dis- 
charged, and  with  the  same  stern  and  unwavering  fidelity  that 
characterized  all  his  official  conduct  during  the  ten  consecutive 
years  he  held  the  office. 

"The  committee  consider  it  to  be  not  altogether  out  of  place 
for  them,  now  and  here,  to  urge  upon  the  General  Assembly 
the  indispensable  necessity  there  is  for  the  creation  of  the 
office  of  auditor  of  accounts.  The  great  security  the  state  would 
derive  from  the  services  of  such  an  officer,  not  only  against 
frauds  but  against  unintentional  errors  and  mistakes  of  every 
kind,  must  be  so  obvious  to  every  business  man  as  to  render  an 
argument  in  favor  of  establishing  such  an  office  altogether 
unnecessary.  » 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  359 

"We  have  now  presented  a  striking  and  impressive  instance 
directly  in  point  If  Stephen  Cahoone,  the  late  General 
Treasurer,  had  not  been  a  man  of  tried  and  acknowledged 
integrity,  he  might  have  appropriated  to  his  own  use  the  large 
amount  of  money  found  in  the  treasury  over  and  above  the 
cash  balance  his  accounts  exhibited,  without  the  fact,  in  all 
probability,  ever  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  at  least  this 
General  Assembly." 

Mr.  Cahoone's  successor  in  office  received  $8067.31  from  the 
outgoing  treasurer,  and  the  legislative  record  in  the  Schedules 
is  closed  apparently  with  the  auditing  committee's  commenda- 
tion of  Treasurer  Cahoone.  The  integrity  and  honesty  of 
the  latter  never  were  seriously  questioned.  There  were,  how- 
ever, irregularities  in  his  accounts,  and  he  had  not  dealt  with 
the  school  fund  in  a  manner  to  warrant  approval. 

AN  INVESTIGATION  OFF  THE  RECORD. 

The  following  resolution  appears  in  the  Schedules  for  the 
October  session,  1851: 

"The  House  of  Representatives  having  learned  information 
that  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Honorable  Senate  at  the 
last  June  session  to  make  certain  examinations  in  relation  to 
the  General  Treasurer's  office,  has  reported,  among  other 
things,  that  there  has  been  misapplication  of  the  funds  of  the 
state  to  a  very  large  amount,  and  the  House  not  being  aware  of 
any  misapplication  of  the  public  money;  therefore, 

"Resolved,  That  the  Honorable  Senate  be  respectfully 
requested  to  send  said  report  to  the  House,  in  order  that  the 
same  may  be  read  for  the  information  of  the  members  previous 
to  the  printing  of  the  same." 

There  is  in  the  Schedules  no  further  mention  of  the  report 
referred  to.  In  the  Manufacturers  and  Farmers  Journal  for 
November  1,  1851,  it  was  stated  that  the  report  was  received 
from  the  Senate  and  read  in  the  House.  It  was  then  moved 
that  the  House  have  the  report  printed,  and  the  motion  was 
debated.  Friends  of  Mr.  Cahoone  opposed  the  motion  on  the 
ground  that  his  integrity  was  attacked  by  insinuation.  The 
Senate  was  criticised  for  undertaking  an  investigation  of  the 


360  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

treasury  without  concurrence  by  the  House.  The  House  was 
Whig  and  the  Senate  was  Democratic,  and  the  action  of  the 
Senate  was  interpreted  as  an  attempt  to  reopen  the  contro- 
versies attending  the  Dorr  war.  At  the  close  of  the  debate  in 
the  House  the  motion  was  withdrawn,  and  the  report  was 
returned  to  the  Senate  on  the  same  day,  October  31,  1851,  the 
last  day  of  the  October  session. 

In  the  Senate  Journal,  under  date  of  October  31,  1851,  this 
entry  appears:  " Report  in  part  of  committee  on  finance 
received  and  consideration  thereof  continued  to  January  session, 
1852.  Subsequently  said  vote  became  rescinded  and  it  was 
voted  to  have  500  copies  printed  and  distributed  among  the 
members." 

A  Report  that  Cannot  be  Found. — No  copy  of  the  Senate  com- 
mittee's report  is  known  to  exist.  The  Manufacturers  and 
Farmers  Journal  of  later  date  commented  upon  and  severely 
condemned  the  report,  which  "we  have  seen,"  as  a  political 
expedient  of  the  Democrats.  From  the  Journal  article  it 
appears  that  the  report  dealt  principally  with  Mr.  Cahoone's 
administration  of  the  school  money  and  charged  him  with 
misapplying  $82,487.96,  which  should  have  been  credited  to  the 
permanent  school  fund.  The  Journal  placed  responsibility 
for  this  irregularity,  which  it  did  not  admit  was  an  irregularity, 
upon  the  General  Assembly,  which  it  then  excused  from  blame 
because  by  using  money  in  the  treasury  the  necessity  for  levying 
additional  taxes  had  been  avoided.  In  its  zealous  defence  of  the 
Whigs  the  newspaper  declared  that  subsequent  action  of  the 
General  Assembly  had,  in  fact,  although  without  direct  and 
explicit  resolution,  repealed  and  nullified  the  provisions  of  the 
school  law  directing  accumulation  of  the  school  fund;  that  is, 
that  when  appropriations  exceeded  the  general  treasury  bal- 
ance, law  sanctioned  payment  of  appropriations  from  any  money 
in  the  treasury.  Modern  theories  of  public  finance  make  appro- 
priations charges  only  upon  money  not  otherwise  appropriated. 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  361 

The  Journal  reduced  the  error  in  accounting  to  $80,385. 76, "by 
pointing  out  that  a  difference  of  $2102.20  in  the  statement  of 
the  value  of  the  stock  held  for  the  permanent  school  fund  arose 
from  the  practice  of  listing  the  stock  at  its  par  value,  $51,300, 
instead  of  the  actual  cost,  which  had  been  $53,402.20. 

Further  indication  of  the  contents  of  the  committee  report 
may  be  gleaned  from  a  later  report  of  the  same  committee  made 
to  the  Senate  at  the  January  session,  1852,  the  same  which 
received  the  report  of  an  auditing  committee  exonerating  and 
commending  Treasurer  Cahoone.  The  later  report  was  printed 
as  a  separate  Senate  document,  and  does  not  appear  in  the 
Schedules.  A  copy  of  it  is  in  the  Rhode  Island  State  Library. 
The  relevant  portions  are  as  follows,  quotation  being  liberal, 
because  the  report  sets  forth  facts  which  explain  the  problems 
of  the  period,  and  which  could  not  fail  to  influence  the  action  of 
the  General  Treasurer  and  the  General  Assembly: 

"Since  the  report  by  them  made  at  the  last  October  session 
of  the  General  Assembly  your  committee's  investigation  of 
the  affairs  of  the  treasury  has  been  chiefly  limited  to  the  ascer- 
taining and  preparing  a  detailed  statement  of  the  expenditures, 
ordinary  and  extraordinary,  of  the  State  from  Oct.  1,  1841,  to 
the  said  session  of  June,  1851.  .  .  . 

"The  Honorable  Senate  does  not  require  to  be  informed  by 
the  committee  that  the  reports  and  accounts  of  the  General 
Treasurer  annually  undergo  the  scrutiny  of  a  committee  of 
the  General  Assembly  called  the  committee  on  audit,  and, 
having  once  passed  such  an  ordeal,  might  safely  be  deemed 
correct  and  incapable  of  containing  any  error,  especially  one 
of  such  magnitude  as  $5000  or  $6000.  And  yet,  the  committee, 
in  the  preparation  of  said  tabular  statement,  did  detect  a  num- 
ber of  errors  that  had  obviously,  up  to  that  time,  escaped  ob- 
servation or  remark.  But  the  greatest  embarrassment  has 
been  experienced  from  a  want  of  uniformity  in  the  classification, 
form  and  order  in  which  the  accounts  and  reports  have  been 
annually  and  semi-annually  made  up  and  submitted  to  the 
General  Assembly;  it  is  believed  that  no  two  of  them  are  in 
those  respects  alike.  .  .  . 

"Another  and  very  serious  difficulty  with  which  the  com- 
mittee, in  the  investigation  of  some  portion  of  the  extraordinary 
expenses  of  the  state,  have  been  met,  is  the  absence  from  the 
office  of  the  Treasurer  and  the  Secretary  of  State  of  most  of 


362  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

the*  vouchers,  or  documents  used  as  such,  in  proof  of  the  great 
bulk  of  said  expenses,  termed  by  the  political  party  then  in 
power  'insurrectionary'  expenses,  and  which  occurred  in  the 
years  1842  and  1843. 

"At  a  special  session  of  the  General  Assembly  in  April,  1842,  a 
Governor's  council  .  .  .  was  appointed  to  advise  and  consult 
with  Governor  King  in  relation  to  state  affairs,  and  to  continue 
in  their  offices  until  the  further  order  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  that  by  and  with  the  advice  of  such,  his  council,  he,  the 
Governor,  might  draw  from  the  treasury  such  sums  as  he  might 
require  for  the  use  of  the  state.  .  .  .  About  $56,000  were 
drawn  on  orders  of  Governor  King  alone  and  supported  by  no 
sort  of  vouchers.  .  .  .  By  an  act  of  the  June  session,  1842, 
Messrs.  .  .  .  were  appointed  a  board  of  commissioners 
'  to  receive,  examine  and  audit  all  the  claims  against  the  state 
that  have  occurred  by  reason  of  the  recent  insurrection,  other 
than  for  military  services.'  .  .  .  Payment  was  made  by 
the  orders  of  the  commissioners  themselves  on  the  General 
Treasury  in  favor  of  the  claimants  individually.  .  .  .  All 
that  the  public,  after  the  lapse  of  about  ten  years,  is  permitted 
to  know  ...  is  that  the  state  is  indebted  to  the  public 
deposit  fund  for  these  extraordinary  expenditures  ...  the 
extraordinary  sum  (for  Rhode  Island)  of  over  $194,000,  and 
during  the  same  period  of  time,  has,  in  addition  thereto,  mis- 
applied about  $80,000  rightfully  belonging  to  the  permanent 
school  fund  of  the  state.  .  .  . 

"The  committee  have  before  said  that  they  had  detected 
some  errors  in  the  accounts  and  reports  of  the  General  Treas- 
urer, that  probably  had  escaped  all  previous  notice;  they  do 
not,  however,  mean  to  be  understood  as  asserting  positively 
that  they  have  even  now  discovered  the  precise  cause  of  there 
being  in  the  treasury  such  a  sum  as  over  $5000  of  which  the 
Treasurer  should  be  entirely  ignorant  and  not  know  the  time 
when  or  the  source  whence  the  same  had  been  received,  but 
will  state  such  facts  as  have  come  to  their  knowledge  from  the 
investigation  they  have  made,  from  which  the  committee,  as 
they  think,  justly  infer  that  errors  have  been  committed  in 
the  treasury  account  of  equal,  if  not  greater,  amount  than  that 
of  the  above-mentioned  unexplained  surplus.  .  .  ." 

The  report  continued  with  an  analysis  of  certain  irregular 
entries  in  the  reports  of  the  State  Treasurer,  which  showed 
careless  bookkeeping,  at  any  rate.  Accompanying  the  report 
was  a  table  of  receipts  and  expenditures  for  the  period  from 
1841  to  1851,  inclusive. 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  363 

The  "insurrection"  referred  to  in  the  report  was  the  Dorr 
war.  Rhode  Island  from  1663  to  1843  was  governed  under  a 
royal  charter  granted  by  Charles  II.  of  England.  On  May  4, 
1776,  the  General  Assembly  formally  renounced  allegiance  to 
Great  Britain.  In  1795  the  General  Assembly  rejected  a 
memorial  for  a  state  constitution,  and  propositions  relative  to 
calling  a  constitutional  convention  failed  of  adoption  in  1797 
and  1799.  The  freemen  of  the  state  in  1821  and  1822  rejected 
propositions  to  appoint  delegates  to  a  constitutional  convention, 
and  in  1824  rejected  a  constitution  drafted  in  a  convention 
authorized  by  the  General  Assembly.  A  convention  in  1834 
failed  to  complete  its  work.  In  March,  1842,  the  freemen 
rejected  the  "Landholders'  Constitution,"  drafted  by  a  con- 
vention authorized  by  the  General  Assembly.  At  a  mass 
meeting  in  Providence  on  May  5,  1841,  the  people  of  the  state 
directed  the  calling  of  a  convention,  which  met  in  the  State 
House,  framed  and  submitted  to  the  people,  freemen  and  non- 
freemen,  the  "  People's  Constitution."  The  vote  was  favorable, 
and  Thomas  Wilson  Dorr  was  elected  Governor  under  the 
People's  Constitution.  The  Charter  Government  suppressed, 
without  bloodshed,  Dorr's  attempt  to  exercise  the  powers  of 
his  office  as  an  insurrection  against  the  authority  of  the  state. 
In  November,  1842,  the  freemen  ratified  the  present  Constitu- 
tion of  the  state,  adopted  in  convention  at  East  Greenwich. 
The  Constitution  of  1842,  still  in  force,  though  many  times 
amended,  contains  this  provision  safeguarding  the  permanent 
school  fund: 

Article  XII,  Section  2.  "The  money  which  now  is  or  which 
may  hereafter  be  appropriated  by  law  for  the  establishment 
of  a  permanent  fund  for  the  support  of  public  schools,  shall  be 
securely  invested,  and  remain  a  perpetual  fund  for  that  purpose. 

Section  4.  "The  General  Assembly  shall  make  all  necessary 
provisions  by  law  for  carrying  this  article  into  effect.  They 
shall  not  divert  said  money  or  fund  from  the  aforesaid  uses, 
nor  borrow,  appropriate  or  use  the  same,  or  any  part  thereof, 
for  any  other  purpose,  under  any  pretence  whatsoever." 


364  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

The  Constitution,  between  friends,  had  not  prevented  the 
General  Assembly  from  spending  and  the  General  Treasurer 
from  transferring  to  the  general  treasury  account  money  appro- 
priated for  the  permanent  school  fund,  but  not  actually  invested 
in  it! 

An  Analysis. — Returning  to  the  two  reports  of  the  finance 
committee  of  the  Senate,  and  the  Journal's  comment  upon  one 
of  them,  the  fact  of  greatest  significance  for  the  permanent 
school  fund  is  the  committee's  charge  that  about  $80,000 
rightfully  belonging  to  the  permanent  school  fund  had  been 
misapplied.  The  exact  figure,  $82,487.96,  or  as  corrected  by 
the  Journal,  $80,385.76,  furnishes  a  key  to  the  information  on 
which  the  accusation  was  based.  Receipts  of  revenue  from 
lotteries,  auctions,  dividends  on  school  fund  stocks  and  interest 
on  deposits  of  state  revenue,  from  1841  to  1851,  total  exactly 

),385.76,  the  corrected  committee  figure,  as  follows: 


1841  
1842  

Lotteries.          Auctions. 

$9000.00      $274.85 
....       9000.00        180.15 

Dividends. 

$4303.00 
3844.00 

Interest.          Total. 

$720.  13  $14,297.  98 
320.00   13,344.15 

1843  

....       9000.00          52.47 

3078.00 

100.00 

12,230.47 

1844  

....       6750.00          34.92 

2565.00 

333.60 

9680.52 

1845  

101.99 

2482.00 

64.08 

2648.07 

1846  

965.30 

2986.50 

3950.80 

1847  

1785.06 

3167.00 

•276.48 

5228.54 

1848  

."  1837.30 

3202.50 

5039.80 

1849  

1254.92 

3244.00 

4498.92 

1850  

1234.26 

3334.50 

4568.76 

1851  

1157.93 

3591.00 

148.82 

4897.78 

Total $33,750.00     $8878.15835,797.50    $1960.11  $80,385.76 

Analysis  of  Treasurer  Cahoone's  earliest  report,  that  for  1841, 
has  demonstrated  that  he  applied  no  part  of  the  school  revenue 
appropriated  to  the  school  fund  to  that  purpose.  His  report  for 
1842  was  similar  in  character,  and  from  1843  to  1851  he  reported 
the  permanent  school  fund  as  consisting  of  $51,300  worth  of 
stock,  without  crediting  to  it  any  increase.  The  finance  com- 
mittee was  justified,  therefore,  in  charging  Treasurer  Cahoone 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  365 

with  misapplying  the  school  fund  revenue,  and,  if  the  law  had 
remained  without  change  from  1841  to  1851,  the  amount  of  the 
misapplication  by  Treasurer  Cahoone  was  stated  accurately. 

THE   STATE'S   UNACKNOWLEDGED   DEBT   TO   THE 

FUND. 

The  law  had  been  changed,  however,  and,  besides  that,  the 
committee  report  was  not  a  complete  statement  of  the  state's 
indebtedness  to  the  permanent  school  fund  in  1851. 

With  the  purpose  of  drafting  an  accurate  statement  of  the 
state's  indebtedness  to  the  permanent  school  fund  in  1851,  it  is 
necessary  to  go  back  to  Treasurer  Sterne's  last  report,  that  for 
1840.  The  state's  debt  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  April  30, 
1839,  had  been  $15,773.33.  The  school  law  of  1839  provided 
for  the  payment  of  this  debt  from  the  revenue  derived  from 
auctions  and  lotteries,  and  the  application  of  the  same  revenue 
in  subsequent  years  to  the  increase  of  the  fund.  Actually  the 
law  of  1839  cancelled  the  debt  of  $15,773.33— not  immediately 
upon  the  passage  of  the  act,  but  when  the  new  revenue  appro- 
priated to  the  purpose  equalled  the  old  debt.  The  cancellation 
was  not,  however,  a  repudiation,  because  the  General  Assembly 
applied  to  the  school  fund  the  entire  revenue  from  lotteries 
and  auctions,  undiminished,  as  previously,  by  a  charge  of 
$10,000  for  the  support  of  public  schools.  That  is,  practically, 
a  new  source  of  revenue  was  ordered  applied  to  liquidation  of 
the  debt. 

The  debt  may  be  ignored  in  this  calculation,  because  the  time 
of  cancellation  is  not  material.  Practically,  therefore,  a  fresh 
school  fund  account  may  be  opened  for  1839,  with  the  state's 
indebtedness  zero  and  $51,300  worth  of  stock  held  as  an  invest- 
ment. With  such  a  base  it  is  not  necessary  to  distinguish 
between  revenue  applicable  to  pay  an  outstanding  debt  and 
revenue  applicable  to  increase  of  the  fund,  all  going  for  the 
latter  purpose.  Therefore,  all  the  revenue  from  auctions, 


366  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

lotteries,  dividends  and  interest  belongs  to  the  permanent  school 
fund,  and  the  $3932.79  applicable  to  increase,  and  $9682.75 
applicable  to  payment  of  the  debt,  as  distinguished  by  Treas- 
urer Sterne,  combined,  make  the  state's  indebtedness  on  April 
30,  1840,  $13,615.54.  As  shown  by  the  table*,  the  additions 
for  five  following  years  are  $14,297.98  for  1841,  $13,344.15  for 
1842,  $12,230.47  for  1843,  $9680.52  for  1844,  and  $2648.07  for 
1845,  making  the  state's  indebtedness  to  the  permanent  school 
fund  $65,816.73  on  April  30,  1845. 

The  school  act  of  June,  1845,  section  2,  provided:  "For  the 
encouragement  and  maintenance  of  public  schools  in  the  several 
towns  and  cities  of  the  state,  in  the  manner  hereinafter  pre- 
scribed, the  sum  of  $25,000  is  hereby  annually  appropriated  out 
of  the  annual  avails  of  the  school  fund,  and  of  the  money  de- 
posited with  the  state  by  the  United  States,  and  of  other  money 
not  otherwise  appropriated.  .  .  ."  This  was  the  Barnard 
act;  it  was  framed,  no  doubt,  to  accord  with  the  contempo- 
raneous treasury  practice.  Henry  Barnard,  apparently,  did 
not  investigate  the  law  governing  the  permanent  school  fund; 
neither  did  the  Senate's  finance  committee,  nor  the  Treasurers 
who  succeeded  Stephen  Cahoone,  as  will  appear  later.  The 
plain  intent  of  the  school  law  of  1845  was  to  turn  the  dividends 
on  school  fund  stock  and  interest  on  the  state  revenue,  from  the 
school  fund  into  the  appropriation  for  the  support  of  public 
schools.  Treasurer  Cahoone's  practice  in  this  respect  was  not 
erroneous  after  1845. 

The  school  act  of  1845  provided  also,  in  section  27,  that  "all 
general  acts  and  resolutions  heretofore  passed  relating  to  public 
schools  .  .  .  are  hereby  repealed,"  and,  in  section  28,  that 
"this  act  shall  not  take  effect  till  after  the  next  session  of  the 
General  Assembly  (October,  1845),  and  in  the  meantime  the 
existing  laws  relative  to  public  schools  shall  continue  in  force." 
These  sections  repealed  the  school  law  of  1839,  under  which 
receipts  from  auctions  and  lotteries  accrued  to  the  permanent 

*Page  364. 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  367 

school  fund.  After  October,  1845,  therefore,  there  was  abso- 
lutely no  provision  in  the  law  for  the  increase  of  the  perma- 
nent school  fund.  To  the  debt  already  accumulated  should  be 
added,  however,  receipts  of  all  classes  of  school  fund  money 
from  May,  1845,  to  October,  1845,  as  follows:  Dividends, 
$1365.50;  auctions,  $289.92;  total,  $1655.42,  making  the  state's 
debt  to  the  school  fund  $67,472.15,  on  October  1, 1845.  Stephen 
Cahoone's  misapplication  of  school  fund  revenue  amounted  to 
$53,856.61.  The  unacknowledged  indebtedness  of  the  state 
was  in  part  liquidated  by  Mr.  Cahoone's  successors  in  office. 

ERRORS  THAT  FAVORED  THE  SCHOOL  FUND. 

The  school  act  of  1851,  section  2,  provided  that  "The  sum  of 
$35,000  shall  annually  be  paid  out  of  the  income  of  the  school 
fund,  deposits  of  surplus  revenue  and  other  money  in  the  general 
treasury,  for  the  support  of  public  schools  .  .  ,"  thus 
continuing  the  disposition  of  school  fund  dividends  made  by 
the  act  of  1845.  Otherwise  it  did  not  mention  the  permanent 
school  fund.  The  report  of  the  Senate  finance  committee, 
presented  in  the  same  year  and  already  discussed,  had  an  effect 
as  striking  almost  as  the  irregularities  which  it  had  disclosed. 
The  new  General  Treasurer,  Edwin  Wilbur,  renewed  the  prac- 
tice of  carrying  an  account  with  the  permanent  school  fund 
and  of  adding  to  it — although  there  was,  in  1851  and  thereafter 
until  1857,  no  law  setting  apart  any  portion  of  the  state  revenue 
for  the  purpose,  except  an  act  passed  in  1848  directing  the  General 
Treasurer  to  transfer  to  the  permanent  school  fund  the  share 
in  the  school  money  of  any  town  which  failed  to  appropriate 
the  amount  required  by  law. 

Treasurer  Wilbur  in  1852,  1853  and  1854  credited  to  the  per- 
manent sqhool  fund  $16,094.48,  derived  from  interest  on  deposits 
of  the  revenue,  dividends  on  permanent  school  fund  stock, 
auctions,  interest  on  deposits  of  the  revenue  which  he  was 
setting  apart  for  the  fund,  and  the  sale  of  a  right  to  buy  stock 


368  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

issued  as  a  dividend  on  stock  already  held.  He  purchased  194 
shares  of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  at  a  cost  of  $10,086.38, 
leaving  $6008.10  due  the  school  fund,  according  to  his  account, 
of  which  $5987.56  was  deposited  as  a  separate  account  and 
$20.54  was  due  from  the  treasury. 

The  school  act  of  1854  appropriated  $50,000  for  the  support  of 
public  schools,  without  specifying  the  sources  of  revenue;  but 
it  did  not,  as  a  repealing  act,  revive  any  earlier  act  disposing 
of  the  earlier  sources  of  school  fund  revenue. 

Samuel  B.  Vernon,  who  succeeded  Edwin  Wilbur  as  General 
Treasurer  in  1854,  likewise  administered  the  school  fund  in 
accordance  with  custom  rather  than  law.  He  reported  the  con- 
dition of  the  permanent  fund  in  1855  as  follows :  Total  receipts 
to  April  30,  1854,  $16,094.48;  less  $113.70  and  interest,  $5.99, 
an  item  twice  credited,  leaving  $15,974.79;  dividends  $4270, 
interest  on  deposited  revenue  $970,  auctions  $842.67,  interest 
on  money  deposited  for  school  fund  $160;  total  increase  for 
year  $6242.67.  He  deposited  $6082.67  to  the  credit  of  the 
fund,  which  was  then  indebted  $99.15  to  the  state.  In  May, 
1856,  Samuel  A.  Parker,  as  Treasurer,  reported  the  permanent 
school  fund  as  follows : 

694  shares  of  Globe  Bank,  Providence $34,700.00 

332  shares  of  Mechanics  Bank,  Providence 16,600.00 

434  shares  of  Bank  of  North  America,  Providence 22,594.38 


Total $73,894.38 

Due  from  permanent  school  fund 376 . 92 


Net $73,517.46 

The  invested  fund  had  been  increased  by  the  purchase  of  240 
shares  of  stock  of  National  Bank  of  North  America,  costing 
$12,508.00. 

The  movement  inaugurated  by  Treasurer  Wilbur  and  con- 
tinued four  years  had  carried  to  the  fund,  therefore,  $22,594.38 
of  money  not  appropriated  to  it  by  law.  The  movement  had 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  369 

stopped,  temporarily,  for  the  Schedules  show  no  change  in  the 
school  fund  report  until  1859.  If  the  amount  thus  credited 
without  law  be  treated  as  a  payment  and  deducted  from  the 
earlier  indebtedness,  $67,472.15,  the  state  on  April  30,  1856, 
still  owed  the  permanent  school  fund  $44,877.77. 

THE    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    PRESENT    LAW. 

The  Revised  Statutes  of  Rhode  Island,  1857,  in  effect  July  1, 
1857,  contained  a  chapter  entitled  "  Of  the  Permanent  School 
Fund,"  which  is  the  basis  of  the  present  law.  It  follows  : 

Section  1.  The  General  Treasurer,  with  the  advice  of  the 
Governor,  shall  have  full  power  to  regulate  the  custody  and 
safe-keeping  of  the  fund  now  constituting  the  permanent  fund 
for  the  support  of  public  schools,  and  to  keep  the  same  securely 
invested  in  the  capital  stock  of  some  safe  and  responsible  bank 
or  banks  within  this  State.* 

Section  2.  The  money  that  shall  be  paid  into  the  state 
treasury  by  auctioneers  for  duties  accruing  to  the  use  of  the 
state,  is  hereby  appropriated,  and  the  same  shall  annually  be 
added  to  said  school  fund  for  the  permanent  increase  thereof. f 

Section  3.  Whenever  any  money  appropriated  to  any  town 
from  the  state  treasury  for  the  support  of  public  schools  therein 
shall  have  been  forfeited  by  said  town,  the  same  shall  be  added 
to  said  school  fund  and  shall  forever  remain  a  part  thereof.  J 

Section  4.  The  General  Treasurer,  with  the  advice  of  the 
Governor,  shall,  from  time  to  time,  securely  invest  all  sums  of 
money  hereby  directed  to  be  added  to  said  fund  in  the  capital 
stock  of  some  safe  and  responsible  bank  or  banks  within  this 
State. § 

Section  5.  The  income  arising  from  said  fund  shall  annually 
be  appropriated  for  the  support  of  public  schools  in  the  several 
towns.  ^[ 

The  Revised  Statutes  thus  restored  to  the  permanent  school 
fund,  as  a  source  of  increase,  the  annual  revenue  derived  from 
auction  duties;  this  and  forfeitures  were  the  only  sources  of 

*  This  provision  is  similar  to  the  Act  of  1828.  The  law  now  permits  investment  in  town 
or  city  bonds. 

t  Same  in  Acts   of   1828   and    1839. 

J  Act  of  1848. 

§  Act  of  1828. 

If  Acts  of  1845,  1851. 


370  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

increase  provided  by  law.  Nevertheless,  in  1859,  Treasurer 
Parker  reported  the  state's  indebtedness  to  the  permanent 
school  fund  as  follows:  Interest  on  stocks,  $11,434.50;  auction 
duties,  $4386.75;  interest  on  revenue,  $211.69;  total,  $16,- 
032.94;  less  overdraft  in  previous  report,  $376.92;  net  indebted- 
ness, $15,656.02. 

Of  this  amount  only  $3165.34,  that  is  $4386.75  received  from 
auctioneers,  less  $1221.41  paid  by  auctioneers  previous  to  July  1, 
1857,  legally  belonged  to  the  fund;  and  the  state  by  the  act  of 
its  Treasurer  without  sanction  of  law,  thus  repaid  $12,490.68 
of  its  unacknowledged  debt,  reducing  the  latter  to  $32,387.09. 
Thereafter  the  Treasurer  credited  to  the  increase  of  the  fund 
only  the  revenue  derived  from  auctions,  which  was  strictly  in 
compliance  with  the  Revised  Statutes. 

THE  GREAT  INCREASE  IN  1859. 

In  January,  1859,  the  State  Auditor  in  his  report  said:  "And 
they  (the  people)  should  not,  under  any  circumstances  likely  to 
occur,  hereafter  allow  the  public  deposit  fund,  which  has  been 
by  law  for  more  than  20  years,  dedicated  to  the  high  objects  of 
public  education,  to  be  touched  for  any  other  purpose  than  the 
one  for  which  it  was  so  long  since  set  apart.  And,  in  order  to 
make  assurance  doubly  sure,  that  this  money  shall  hereafter 
be  used  only  for  educational  purposes,  I  see  no  reason  why  the 
remaining  portions  of  the  deposit  fund  should  not  be,  at  once 
and  forever,  transferred  to  and  made  a  part  of  the  public  school 
fund,  which  no  party  in  power  would  ever  dare  to  touch  for  any 
other  purpose  than  the  high  and  almost  sacred  one  to  which  it 
is  specially  devoted." 

At  the  January  session,  1859,  it  was  enacted  by  the  General 
Assembly,  after  thorough  consideration  and  debate,  as  follows: 

Section  1.  The  remaining  portions  of  the  deposit  fund 
received  by 'this  state  from  the  United  States  by  virtue  of  the 
act  of  Congress  approved  June  23,  1836,  is  hereby  transferrred 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  371 

to  and  shall  constitute  a  part  of  the  permanent  fund  for  the 
support  of  public  schools  in  this  state:  Provided,  however, 
that  the  same,  or  any  part  thereof,  may  be  withdrawn  from  said 
permanent  fund,  whenever  called  for  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States  pursuant  to  the  act  of  Congress 
aforesaid." 

Thus  in  the  final  disposition  of  the  deposit  fund  Dorr  prevailed. 
The  "remaining  portions  of  the  deposit  fund"  amounted  to 
$155,541.27.  In  May,  1859,  the  permanent  school  fund  was 

reported  as  consisting  of: 

» 

694  shares  of  Globe  Bank,  Providence $34,700.00 

332  shares  of  Mechanics  Bank,  Providence 16,600.00 

434  shares  of  Bank  of  North  America,  Providence 22,594 . 38 

Public  deposit  money: 

1  bond  of  the  city  of  Providence 32,112.60 

1  bond  of  the  city  of  Newport 5800.00 

1306  shares  of  Globe  Bank,  Providence 66,308. 19 

256  shares  of  American  Bank,  Providence 13,101.04 

30  shares  of  Arcade  Bank,  Providence 1534 . 25 

732  shares  of  Bank  of  North  America,  Providence 36,695 . 19 


Total $229,435.65 

Money  awaiting  investment 15,656.02 


Total $245,091 . 67 

THIS  TRANSFER  WAS  NOT  AN  APPROPRIATION. 

At  the  January  session,  1860,  the  General  Assembly  resolved: 
"That  the  sum  of  $11,191.80,  being  the  balance  on  hand  in  the 
state  treasury,  is  hereby  transferred  to  and  shall  constitute  a 
part  of  the  permanent  fund  for  the  support  of  public  schools  in 
this  state,  to  be  invested  and  regulated  by  the  commissioners 
of  the  deposit  fund."  The  resolution  originated  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  which  voted  to  transfer  $9786.24  to  the 
fund.  The  Senate  increased  the  amount  to  $11,191.80,  and 
the  House  then  concurred. 

The  treasurer  in  May,  1860,  reported  the  invested  permanent 
school  fund  as  follows: 


372  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

1  bond  of  the  city  of  Newport $4800 . 00 

2000  shares  of  Globe  Bank,  Providence 101,008. 19 

332  shares  of  Mechanics  Bank,  Providence 16,600.00 

1166  shares  of  Bank  of  North  America,  Providence 59,289.57 

30  shares  of  Arcade  Bank,  Providence 1534.25 

813  shares  of  Bank  of  Commerce,  Providence 42,935 . 24 

366  shares  of  American  Bank,  Providence 18,932 . 87 


Total $245,100. 12 

Comparison  with  the  statement  for  May,  1859,  shows  that 
the  city  of  Providence  bond  for  $32,102.60  no  longer  was  listed, 
and  that  Newport's*  bond  was  reduced  $1000.  Otherwise, 
entries  of  bank  stocks  were  consolidated,  the  number  of  shares 
of  American  Bank  increased  110,  and  Bank  of  Commerce  ap- 
peared for  the  first  time  in  the  list  with  813  shares.  The  in- 
vestment in  city  bonds,  permitted  with  the  deposit  money, 
was  being  transferred  to  bank  stocks,  in  compliance  with  law 
governing  the  permanent  school  fund. 

The  statement  of  activity  of  the  fund  shows  the  same  facts 
disclosed  by  the  comparison.  It  is : 

Balance  April  30,  1859 $15,656.02 

City  of  Providence,  bond 32,102.60 

City  of  Newport,  payment  on  bond 1000.00 

Auctioneers 1021 .09     $49,779. 71 

813  shares  of  Bank  of  Commerce 42,935 . 24 

110  shares  of  American  Bank 5831 .83       48,767.07 


Balance  subject  to  investment $1012.64 

If  the  treasurer  had  transferred  $11,191.80  to  the  permanent 
school  fund,  he  had  used  it  merely  to  reduce  the  state's  out- 
standing acknowledged  indebtedness.  Consequently  the  $11,- 
191.80  did  not  reduce  the  state's  accumulated,  unacknowledged 
indebtedness,  which  still  stood  at  $32,387.09.  The  General 
Assembly's  transfer  of  the  treasury  balance  had  been  construed 
as  an  order  to  apply  the  money  in  the  treasury  to  the  state's 
debt;  not  as  a  fresh  appropriation.  The  construction  is  per- 
fectly legitimate.  There  is  no  item  in  the  record  corresponding 
to  the  $11,191.80  ordered  transferred;  but  the  state  Treasurer 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  373 

had  invested  all  money  due  the  fund  (as  his  accounts  ran), 
except  current  revenue  from  auctions. 

Though  the  permanent  school  fund  gave  promise  in  1860  of 
settling  down,  after  so  romantic  a  past,  into  the  dull  monotony 
of  steady  increase  according  to  law,  such  was  not  its  lot.  Since 
1860  the  record  shows  no  diversion  from  the  fund  of  the  revenue 
from  auctions  appropriated  to  its  increase.  Still,  the  fund  as 
reported  in  1917,  amounted  to  only  $248,138.84,  as  contrasted 
with  $246,112.76  in  1860,  a  gain  of  only  $2026.08  in  57  years. 

DULL,  MONOTONOUS  INCREASE  RELIEVED. 

The  permanent  school  fund  in  1860  consisted  of  stocks  and 
bonds  valued  at  $245,100.12,  and  $1012.64  of  uninvested 
money.  The  city  of  Newport  redeemed  its  bond  in  two  more 
installments,  reducing  the  invested  fund  to  $240,300.12  in  1863, 
and,  with  $3323.24  received  from  auctioneers,  increasing  the 
uninvested  fund  to  $9135.88.  The  Treasurer  purchased  180 
shares  of  American  Bank  stock  at  a  cost  of  $9726.25,  the  in- 
vested fund  standing  at  $250,026.37  in  1864,  with  $569.19  un- 
invested, auctions  having  netted  $1159.56.  The  reorganization 
of  the  banking  system  under  the  National  Banking  Act  was 
shown  in  the  listing  of  banks  as  national  banks;  in  the  process 
the  Arcade  Bank  became  the  Rhode  Island  National  Bank. 

A  Defaulter. — For  1867  no  Treasurer's  report  appears  in  the 
Schedules.  Early  in  1868  the  treasurer  was  found  to  be  a 
defaulter  to  the  extent  of  $4082.62;  he  resigned  and  ex-Treasurer 
Parker  was  requested  to  return  to  the  office,  which  he  held 
thereafter  until  his  death  in  1872.  From  the  records,  it  is 
possible  to  construct  a  treasury  statement  for  1867,  from  which 
it  appears  that  the  invested  permanent  school  fund  was  $253,- 
966.37,  and  that  $1980.31  awaited  investment.  The  defaulting 
Treasurer  had  purchased  for  the  fund  a  Rhode  Island  state 
bond  for  $4000,  paying  $3940  therefor.  One  need  not  linger 
to  consider  the  ethical  and  equitable  aspects  of  the  conduct  of  a 


374  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

trustee  who  borrows  from  a  trust  fund  on  his  own  note  or  bond 
and  uses  the  trust  money  for  his  own  purposes;  in  the  particular 
instance  appeal  lies  to  the  law  of  the  state,  which  permitted 
investment  only  in  bank  stocks,  and  to  the  Constitution,  which 
in  unmistakable  terms  forbade  the  General  Assembly  to  "  divert 
said  money  or  fund  from  the  aforesaid  uses,"  or  ''to  borrow, 
appropriate  or  use  the  same,  or  any  part  thereof  for  any  other 
purpose,  under  any  pretence  whatsoever."  The  conduct  of 
the  Treasurer  was  clearly  illegal  and  unconstitutional;  it  had 
an  ultimate  consequence  that  was  reprehensible.  When  the 
state  bond  disappeared  from  the  investments  list  of  the  per- 
manent school  fund,  presumably  by  payment  and  redemption, 
in  1871,  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  bond  were  not  credited 
to  the  permanent  school  fund,  which  was  thus  mulcted  $3940. 
Adding  this  amount  to  the  outstanding  unacknowledged  in- 
debtedness of  the  state  to  the  permanent  school  fund,  the  latter 
became  $36,327.09  in  1871,  at  which  figure  it  stands. 

An  Error  of  $10,000. — In  1868  seven  shares  of  the  National 
Exchange  Bank  of  Newport  were  purchased  at  a  cost  of  $350, 
the  first  and  only  investment  in  stock  of  a  bank  outside  of 
Providence.  The  invested  fund  was  $254,316.37,  and  $4038.24 
awaited  investment.  After  the  disappearance  of  the  state 
bond,  already  mentioned,  the  invested  fund  was  reported  in 

1871  as  $250,376.37,  and  at  the  same  figure  without  change 
until  1876,  when  it  dropped,  urithout  explanation,  to  $240,376.37. 
A  careful  examination  of  the  annual  reports  discloses  that  in 

1872  the  value  of  1166  shares  of  National  Bank  of  North 
America  was  given  as  $59,289.57,  and  that  in  1873  the  same 
stock  was  quoted  at  $50,289.57,  with  no  change  in  the  total 
value  of  stocks  held  to  correspond  with  the  reduction.     In  1874 
the  value  of  332  shares  of  Mechanics  Bank  was  reduced  $1000, 
still  without  change  in  the  list  total.     Two  years  later  the  error 
in  addition  (or  was  it  subtraction!)  was  corrected,  and  the  total 
given  as  $240,376.37.     On  the  books,  the  fund  had  lost  $10,000. 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  375 

A  Prophecy. — In  May,  1874,  the  State  Auditor,  in  his  report 
to  the  General  Assembly,  made  this  comment  on  the  permanent 
school  fund: 

"It  is  a  question,  or  subject  matter,  deserving  the  attention  of 
your  honorable  body,  whether  the  best  interests  of  the  state, 
pecuniarily  considered  would  be  enhanced  by  repealing  all  laws 
having  reference  to  any  further  reservation  of  the  sum  annually 
received  from  auctioneers  to  be  added  to  this  fund.  The  sum 
now  appropriated  annually  is  nearly  five  tunes  as  large  as  the 
accumulated  dividends  on  this  fund,  and  no  good  reason  teems 
to  now  exist  for  a  continuance  of  this  practice  or  policy.  With 
our  present  state  debt,  good  financial  policy  would  seem  to  dic- 
tate that  it  would  be  prudent  and  economical  to  dispose  of  assets 
and  investments  of  this  nature,  reducing  our  indebtedness,  and 
at  the  same  time  relieving  our  people  of  a  seeming  liability  of 
being  sufferers  in  a  monetary  crisis  that  may  disturb  our  financial 
peace  at  some  future  date." 

The  recommendation  was  not  adopted.  And  yet  it  ventured 
a  prophecy  destined  to  be  realized,  at  least  in  part,  within  the 
next  decade.  The  permanent  school  fund  was  doomed  to 
suffer  materially  as  the  fruition  of  a  financial  panic. 

The  Sprague  Failure. — The  panic  of  1873  produced  a  catas- 
trophe in  Rhode  Island  through  the  failure  of  the  A.  &  W. 
Sprague  Company.  The  permanent  school  fund  suffered.  In 
April,  1877,  the  Globe  National  Bank,  under  orders  of  the 
Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  reduced  its  capital  stock  one-half 
because  of  its  holdings  of  "Sprague  paper,"  then  listed  as  worth 
25  per  centum  of  its  face.  Although  the  2000  shares  of  stock 
held  for  the  school  fund  were  listed  as  1000  thereafter,  no  change 
in  valuation  was  made.  Treasurers  subsequent  to  John  Sterne, 
and  all  auditors  up  to  this  period,  carried  the  school  fund  list 
as  a  cost  account,  without  regard  to  par  or  market  value.  In 
1881  the  Comptroller  ruled  that  "Sprague  paper"  was  worth- 
less, and  could  not  be  carried  by  national  banks  as  an  asset. 
The  Globe  Bank  was  compelled  to  assess  its  shareholders  $15 
per  share,  the  state's  assessment  being  $15,000.  This,  with 
interest,  was  paid  eventually  out  of  the  uninvested  school  fund 


376  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

money,  and  in  the  accounting  transfer  was  made  from  the  un- 
invested to  the  invested  fund.  In  1882  1000  shares  of  Globe 
Bank  stock  stood  as  costing  $15,000  more  than  the  2000  shares 
held  in  1876 !  The  total  invested  fund  was  given  as  $255,509.86, 
and  the  uninvested  fund,  which  in  1881  was  $26,573.54,  was 
reduced  accordingly,  though  receipts  from  auctioneers  raised  it 
to  $13,399.50. 

In  1884  the  state  made  its  last  investment  in  bank  stock  for 
the  fund,  buying  100  shares  of  National  Bank  of  North  America, 
$6750;  26  shares  of  American  National  Bank,  $1410.50;  142 
shares  of  Merchants  National  Bank,  $9660;  total,  $17,820.50. 
The  invested  fund  was  listed  as  $273,330.36  in  1885,  erroneously 
as  $173,330.36  in  1886,  but  as  $273,330.36  thereafter  until  1896, 
when  a  loss  of  50  cents  appeared.  In  1899  high-water  mark  was 
reached,  when  the  invested  fund  was  reported  as  $293,262.36, 
the  investments  then  including  one  bond  of  the  town  of  Warren 
valued  at  $19,932.50.  The  uninvested  balance  was  $1926.60. 
In  1899  the  National  Bank  of  Commerce  reduced  its  capital 
stock  one-half,  the  state's  holding  dropping  from  813  to  406 
shares — without  change  in  the  reported  value. 

The  fictitious  value  given  the  fund  may  be  appreciated  more 
clearly  when  it  is  remembered  that  1400  shares  of  stock  had 
been  lost  in  the  period  from  1860  to  1900.  Further  relief  from 
the  dull  monotony  of  steady  increase  had  been  administered 
through  the  investment  in  a  Rhode  Island  state  bond,  through 
the  $10,000  charged  off  seemingly  through  erroneous  accounting, 
and  through  the  $15,000  paid  as  an  assessment  on  Globe  Bank 
stock.  A  more  drastic  remedy  was  soon  to  be  applied. 

THE  PROCESS  OF  REINVESTMENT. 

When,  in  1859,  the  deposit  fund  was  transferred  to  the  school 
fund,  municipal  bonds  were  redeemed  and  the  proceeds  invested 
in  bank  stocks,  in  compliance  with  the  law,  which  at  that  time 
required  investment  exclusively  in  the  capital  stock  of  banks 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  377 

within  the  state.  Two  generations  passed  before  this  policy 
was  reversed,  although  the  law  as  early  as  1876  permitted 
investment  in  United  States  or  state  bonds,  or  city  or  town 
notes.  The  General  Assembly  in  1876  authorized  a  change  by 
passing  the  following  act: 

"The  board  of  commissioners  of  sinking  funds  are  hereby 
authorized,  in  their  discretion,  from  time  to  time,  to  sell  the 
national  bank  stocks  in  which  the  school  fund  of  the  state  is  now 
invested  and  to  invest  the  sums  received  from  such  sale  in  bonds 
of  the  United  States,  or  the  bonds  of  any  New  England  state, 
or  in  interest  bearing  notes  of  any  city  or  town  in  this  state; 
and  said  board  shall  deposit  any  sum  in  their  hands  awaiting 
investment  in  some  national  bank  or  trust  company  in  the  city 
of  Providence,  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  board  to  report 
to  the  General  Assembly  at  its  January  session  their  doings 
under  the  provisions  of  this  act." 

The  commissioners  of  sinking  funds  took  no  action.  It  will 
be  noticed  that  the  act  applied  exclusively  to  so  much  of  the 
school  fund  as  was  already  invested;  in  the  purchase  of  new 
securities  for  investment  the  General  Treasurer  and  Governor 
were  limited  to  bank  stocks. 

Action  Urged. — Governor  Alfred  H.  Littlefield,  in  his  message 
to  the  General  Assembly  in  1881,  reviewed  briefly  the  history  of 
the  school  fund  in  connection  with  the  Globe  Bank  and  made 
recommendations  as  follows: 

"The  first  investment  by  the  state  in  stock  of  the  original 
Globe  Bank  was  made  as  early  as  1831,  when  100  shares  were 
purchased,  and  subsequent  investments  increased  the  amount 
to  2000  shares.  On  account  of  losses  by  investment  in  'Sprague 
paper/  so  called,  the  capital  stock  of  the  bank  was,  in  April, 
1877,  reduced  one-half,  and  the  number  of  shares  held  by  the 
state  was  consequently  reduced  to  1000.  In  the  reduced  captial 
of  the  bank  the  Sprague  indebtedness  was  allowed  to  count  as 
worth  25  per  cent.,  but  in  compliance  with  a  recent  order  of  the 
Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  the  entire  Sprague  paper  has  been 
charged  off,  and  to  meet  the  deficiency  an  assessment  of  $15 
per  share  has  been  ordered,  making  the  amount  due  from  the 
state  $15,000.  This  still  remains  unpaid,  there  being  no  au- 
thority for  its  payment  from  the  treasury,  and  the  commissioners 
of  sinking  funds  deeming  it  advisable  to  refer  the  matter  to  the 


378  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

General  Assembly  before  ordering  a  sale  of  any  of  the  stock  to 
meet  the  assessment. 

"The  statute  provides  that  the  General  Treasurer,  with  the 
advice  of  the  Governor,  shall  have  full  power  to  regulate  the 
custody  and  safe  keeping  of  the  permanent  school  fund,  and  to 
keep  the  same  securely  invested  in  the  capital  stock  of  some 
safe  and  responsible  bank  or  banks  within  the  state.  He  is 
also  required  to  invest  the  accumulations  of  the  fund  in  a  similar 
manner.  By  a  resolution  passed  at  the  January  session,  1876, 
the  commissioners  of  sinking  funds  were  authorized,  in  their 
discretion,  from  time  to  time,  to  sell  the  national  bank  stocks 
in  which  the  school  fund  was  then  invested  and  to  invest  the 
proceeds  in  bonds  of  the  United  States  or  of  any  New  England 
state,  or  in  interest  bearing  notes  or  bonds  of  any  city  or  town 
in  the  state.  The  commissioners  have  not  exercised  this 
authority,  which  applied  to  the  fund  as  it  then  was,  but  not  to 
the  accumulations  awaiting  investment.  ...  Aside  from 
the  resolution  of  1876,  which  imposed  no  duty,  but  conferred 
only  a  discretionary  authority,  the  General  Treasurer  is  per- 
mitted to  invest  in  bank  stock  alone.  In  banks  incorporated 
by  the  General  Assembly,  where  the  state  is  a  stockholder,  the 
General  Treasurer  by  virtue  of  his  office  represents  the  state  in 
the  board  of  directors,  whereas  in  national  banks  the  state  has 
no  official  representative.  What  therefore  might  have  been 
a  judicious  form  of  investment,  in  view  of  the  control  which  the 
state  had  over  banks  of  its  own  creation,  may  well  cease  to  be 
so  in  the  general  change  of  these  banks  to  the  national  banking 
system.  The  stringent  provisions  of  the  Constitution  against 
diverting  this  fund  from  its  specific  use,  and  borrowing,  ap- 
propriating, or  using  it  for  any  other  purpose  whatsoever,  indi- 
cates the  sacredness  with  which  it  is  regarded,  and,  I  think, 
justify  me  to  thus  fully  present  the  matter  for  your  early  and 
careful  consideration." 

The  General  Assembly  took  no  action.  Again,  in  1882, 
Governor  Littlefield's  message  referred  to  the  permanent  school 
fund: 

"I  deem  it  proper  again  to  call  your  attention  to  the  mode  of 
investment  of  our  permanent  school  fund,  referring  you  to  my 
former  message  for  details  as  to  the  legislation  on  this  subject. 
Further  reflection  strengthens  my  conviction  of  the  importance 
of  changing  those  investments  as  soon  as  it  can  advantageously 
be  done.  Although  the  national  banks  in  which  the  fund  is 
invested  are  beyond  the  control  of  the  General  Assembly,  the 
state  is,  nevertheless,  liable  to  assessment  to  the  extent  of  the 
par  value  of  its  stock.  While  I  have  the  utmost  confidence  in 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  379 

the  national  banking  system  as  a  mode  of  doing  the  business 
for  which  it  was  established,  I  believe,  for  reasons  I  have  here- 
tofore given,  that  the  school  fund  should,  if  possible,  be  placed 
beyond  the  risks  attending  its  present  form  of  investment." 

.  The  Public  Statutes  of  1882  revised  the  school  fund  law  in  such 
manner  as  to  permit  investment  in  town  or  city  bonds,  section  4 
of  chapter  28,  reading: 

"The  General  Treasurer,  with  the  advice  of  the  Governor, 
shall,  from  time  to  time,  securely  invest  all  sums  of  money 
hereby  directed  to  be  added  to  said  fund,  in  the  capital  stock  of 
some  safe  and  responsible  bank  or  banks,  or  in  bonds  of  any  town 
or  city  within  this  state." 

Law  but  no  Action. — The  General  Assembly  had  acted. 
Nevertheless,  no  change  in  investments  was  made.  The 
$15,000  assessment  on  Globe  Bank  stock  was  paid  from  the 
accumulated  uninvested  fund;  and  when,  in  1884,  a  new  invest- 
ment was  made,  nearly  $18,000  was  expended  for  more  bank 
stock.  A  decade  and  a  half  passed  before  the  state  made  its 
first  investment  of  the  accumulating  fund  in  town  bonds,  and 
an  even  longer  period  before  the  invested  fund  was  reinvested. 

Bank  Stocks  Sold. — In  1899  Governor  Elisha  Dyer,  in  his 
inaugural  message,  made  this  announcement :  "  In  view  of  the 
fluctuations  in  value  of  bank  stocks,  in  which  the  larger  portion 
of  this  fund  (the  permanent  school  fund)  is  invested,  both  the 
Treasurer  and  myself  have  determined  to  dispose  of  these  stocks 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment  and  hold  the  proceeds  for  in- 
vestment in  such  bonds  as  the  law  permits."  Accordingly, 
all  the  bank  stocks  held  were  advertised  for  sale  at  public 
auction,  and  all  were  sold  except  the  shares  of  the  National 
Bank  of  Commerce,  which  were  withdrawn  because  there  was 
no  demand  for  them  to  warrant  a  sale.  The  National  Bank  of 
Commerce  at  about  the  same  time  reduced  its  capital  stock 
one-half,  the  state's  813  shares  shrinking  to  406.  The  original 
cost  prices,  the  book  values  and  the  sale  prices  of  the  bank  stocks 
sold  are  given  in  the  following  table: 


380  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Cost.  Book  value.  Sale  price. 

1000  shares  Globe  Bank* $116,141.68  $116,141.18  $66,250.00 

1266  shares  National  Bank  North 

Americaf 66,039.57  57,039.67  78,808.50 

572  shares  American  Bank.  .  .  .        30,069.62  30,069.62  21,164.00 

332  shares  Mechanics  BankJ .  . .        18,056 . 70  15,600 . 00  15,687 .  OQ 

142  shares  Merchants  Bank 9660 . 00  9660 . 00  8094 . 00 

45  shares  Rhode  Island  Bank .           1534 . 25  1534 . 25  798 . 75 
7  shares  National  Exchange 

Bank..                                        350.00  350.00  561.75 


Totals $241,851.32   $230,394.62   $191,364.00 


*  Two  thousand  shares  cost  the  state  $101,008.19.  The  bank  reduced  its  capital  stock 
one-half,  and  the  state  paid  an  assessment  amounting,  with  interest,  to  $15,133.49.  The 
book  value  is  50  cents  in  error. 

t  In  1872  $9000  was  charged  off  the  book  value  of  this  stock  without  explanation. 

J  This  stock  was  carried  oh  the  books  at  par  value  until  1874,  when  $1000  was  charged 
off  without  explanation,  and  probably  through  error. 

From  the  original  cost  the  loss  was  $50,487.32;  from  the 
book  value,  $39,030.62.  The  heaviest  loss,  that  on  Globe 
Bank  stock,  could  be  traced  to  the  Sprague  failure.  The  gains 
on  National  Bank  of  North  America  and  National  Exchange 
Bank  of  Newport  nearly  compensated  for  losses  on  American, 
Mechanics,  Merchants  and  Rhode  Island  National  Banks. 
The  shares  of  National  Bank  of  Commerce,  withdrawn  from  sale 
at  auction,  still  constitute  a  part  of  the  invested  school  fund, 
and  are  the  only  bank  stocks  held  since  1900. 

The  Shrinkage. — Besides  the  $39,030.62  deduction  from  book 
values,  $20,350  (that  is,  407  shares)  was  charged  off  from  the 
book  value  of  the  stock  of  National  Bank  of  Commerce,  making 
the  total  book  loss  $59,380.62.  Auction  duties  credited  to  the 
fund  reduced  the  net  loss  for  the  year  to  $47,737.17,  the  fund 
being  reported  in  1899  as  $293,262.36,  and  in  1900  as  $245, 
525.19,  of  which  $64,935.26  awaited  reinvestment.  In  addition 
$3658.46  received  from  auctioneers  had  not  been  transferred 
to  the  fund.  The  invested  fund  consisted  of  406  shares  of  bank 
stock,  valued  at  $22,585.24,  and  town  bonds  valued  at  $158,- 
004.69. 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  381 

In  1907  the  practice  of  carrying  stocks  and  bonds  at  par, 
instead  of  cost  prices  including  premiums,  was  inaugurated. 
In  consequence  of  this  change  and  reinvestments  the  fund 
shrunk  approximately  $25,000,  from  $262,224.75,  December  3b 
1907,  to  $237,643.55  one  year  later.  The  fund  in  1917  amounted 
to  $248,138.84. 

A  GENERAL  SUMMARY. 

The  more  significant  facts  in  the  foregoing  story  of  the  per- 
manent school  fund  are  as  follows: 

1.  Treasurer   Pitman,   between   1828   and   1832,   diverted 
$3930.75  from  the  permanent  school  fund. 

2.  Treasurer  Sterne  corrected  Treasurer  Pitman's  errors, 
but  was  prevented  by  treasury  shortage  from  investing  for  the 
fund  all  revenues  due  it. 

3.  In  1839  the  state  owed  the  school  fund  $15,773.33— a 
debt  which  it  practically  cancelled,  at  the  same  time  increasing 
the  revenue  appropriated  to  the  fund. 

4.  During  Stephen  Cahoone's  administration  of  the  treasury 
$53,856.61  was  diverted  from  the  school  fund. 

5.  The  state  in  1845  owed  the  school  fund  $67,472.15. 

6.  Treasurers  between  1852  and  1859  transferred  to  the 
school  fund,  without  authority  of  law,  $35,085.06,  reducing  the 
state's  debt  to  the  fund  to  $32,387.09. 

7.  In  1859  the  balance  of  the  United  States  deposit  fund, 
$155,541.27,  was  transferred  to  the  permanent  school  fund. 

8.  In  1860  the  school  fund  exceeded  the  fund  in  1914  by 
$3565. 

9.  In  1867  the  General  Treasurer,  in  violation  of  law  and 
Constitution,  invested  $3940  of  school  fund  money  in  a  state 
bond.     When  the  bond  was  cancelled  the  proceeds  were  not 
credited  to  the  school  fund.     The  state's  unacknowledged  in- 


382  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

debtedness  to  the  permanent  school_fund  thus  became 
327.09. 

10.  In  1877  the  state  lost  1000  shares  of  stock  through  the 
Sprague  failure;  the  money  loss  appeared  on  sale  of  the  remain- 
ing stock  in  1899. 

11.  Between  1872  and  1876  $10,000  was  charged  off  the 
book  values  of  investments  without  explanation. 

12.  In  1882  an  assessment  of  $15,133.49  on  bank  stock  was 
paid  from  money  awaiting  investment,  and  added  to  the  book 
value  of  investments. 

13.  In  1899  the  state  sold  most  of  its  bank  stocks,  the  fund 
decreasing  $39,030.62  in  book  value,  and  $50,487.32  from  the 
original  cost  of  the  investment. 

14.  A  further  loss  of  407  shares  of  stock,  through  reduction 
of  capital,  took  $20,350  from  the  listed  investments. 

15.  After  1908  book  values  were  reduced  to  par  values,  pre- 
miums paid  being  charged  off;  the  apparent  loss  was  $25,000, 
the  fund  shrinking  from  $262,224.45  to  $237,643.55. 

16.  The  total  losses  on  investments,  from  1860  to  1908, 
exceeded  $90,000. 

17.  Nevertheless  the  fund  in  1917  showed  a  total  of  $248,- 
138.84. 

Neglect  and  Its  Cost. — The  fundamental  cause  for  the  unfortu- 
nate past  history  of  the  permanent  school  fund  has  been  neglect, 
and  the  reason  for  neglect  has  been  that  there  has  been  no 
mutual  interest  between  the  public  schools  and  the  school  fund. 
The  annual  appropriations  for  schools  have  never  depended, 
in  amount,  upon  the  school  fund  or  its  income;  and  as  annual 
appropriations  have  been  increased,  the  income  from  the  school 
fund,  when  applicable  to  appropriation  for  school  purposes, 
has  become,  from  time  to  time,  a  smaller  and  less  considerable 
part  thereof.  On  the  other  hand,  to  State  Treasurers  the  fund 
has  been  a  source  of  almost  constant  embarrassment,  par- 


THE    PERMANENT   FUND.  383 

ticularly  in  the  years  when  treasury  balances  were  too  small  to 
warrant  transfer  to  the  fund  of  the  income  due  it,  or  so  small 
that  overdrafts  elsewhere  made  the  fund  itself  a  source  of 
temptation. 

The  State  Auditor,  in  1874,  recommended  abolition  of  the 
permanent  school  fund  and  application  of  the  money  to  pay- 
ment of  the  state's  debt  because  "the  sum  now  appropriated 
annually  (for  schools)  is  nearly  five  times  as  large  as  the  accumu- 
lated dividends,"  and  in  order  to  relieve  "  our  people  of  a  seeming 
liability  of  being  sufferers  in  a  monetary  crisis  that  may  disturb 
our  financial  peace  at  some  future  date."  In  1910  Treasurer 
Read,  in  his  report  to  the  General  Assembly,  said :  "  Section  2, 
chapter  40,  of  the  General  Laws  provides  that  the  duties  paid 
by  auctioneers  into  the  state  treasury  shall  be  added  to  the 
permanent  school  fund.  When  the  statute  was  enacted  it  was 
no  doubt  the  policy  of  the  state  to  create  a  fund  the  income  of 
which  was  to  be  appropriated  for  the  support  of  the  public 
schools  of  the  several  towns  and  cities.  It  was  soon  found, 
however,  the  income  from  the  fund  was  too  small  to  meet  the 
demand  for  educational  purposes,  and  the  policy  was  reversed, 
giving  the  state  the  income  of  the  fund,  about  $9000,  and  receiv- 
ing instead  an  annual  appropriation  of  $120,000.  The  auction 
duties  seldom  exceed  $1000,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  good 
reason  why  this  meagre  sum  should  be  annually  added  to  a  fund 
that  is  no  longer  used  for  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  intended. 
It  should  go  to  the  general  fund."  The  recommendation  was 
repeated  in  1911,  but  the  General  Assembly  took  no  action. 

The  Treasurer's  recommendation  presented  a  matter  which 
deserved  consideration,  though  his  outline  of  the  history  of  the 
fund  was  not  accurate,  and  his  conclusions  were  neither  logical 
nor  satisfying  to  zealous  friends  of  educational  interests.  It  is 
true  that  public  education  is  too  vast  a  public  interest  to  rest 
its  support  upon  the  income  of  accumulated  wealth;  but  that 
is  not  a  good  reason  why  the  Rhode  Island  permanent  school 


384  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

fund  should  be  dissipated.  The  permanent  school  fund  has 
been  static;  its  potentialities  for  good  have  not  been  realized. 
It  has  never,  in  all  its  long  history,  been  an  efficient  aid  to  the 
public  schools.  It  needs  to  be  vitalized;  it  can  be,  and  it  should 
be,  made  a  dynamic  agent  for  school  improvement. 

HOW  THE  SCHOOL  FUND  MAY  BE  VITALIZED. 

Under  the  Constitution  and  the  statutes  the  ideal  condition 
for  the  permanent  school  fund  is  integrity  and  security  of  invest- 
ment. The  Constitution  forbids  the  General  Assembly  to  divert, 
borrow,  appropriate  or  use  the  money  in  the  fund  for  other 
purposes  than  as  a  perpetual  fund  producing  an  income  for 
the  support  of  public  schools.  It  may  be  questioned  seriously, 
however,  whether  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  yielding  four 
per  centum  annually  produces  a  return  anywhere  nearly  equiva- 
lent to  the  return  from  the  same  amount  of  money  expended 
directly  for  schools  and  used  to  educate  citizens  of  the  state.  It 
requires  no  magic  to  make  the  permanent  school  fund  accom- 
plish both  returns — yield  an  income  as  an  investment  and 
educate — in  other  words,  to  spend  it  for  schools  and  still  have 
it,  in  contradiction  of  the  time-honored  proverb  that  you  can't 
have  your  loaf  and  eat  it.  The  movement  toward  this  higher 
ideal  may  be  inaugurated  without  legislation. 

The  statutes  now  permit  investment  in  bank  stocks  or  muni- 
cipal bonds.  The  undesirability  of  state  ownership  of  stock 
in  private  corporations  is  patent,  and  requires  no  discussion 
here.  On  the  other  hand,  municipal  bonds  issued  under  state 
authority  and  secured  by  town  property,  are  safe,  yield  a  fixed, 
steady  and  certain  income,  and  are  as  a  rule,  further  safeguarded 
by  sinking  funds.  No  doubt,  the  present  statute  contemplates 
a  change  ultimately  to  investment  exclusively  in  municipal 
bonds.  Beyond  that,  the  next  step  in  the  line  of  progress 
would  favor  the  selection  of  town  bonds  issued  for  school  pur- 
poses. That  is,  the  permanent  school  fund  should  be  made  a 


THE    PERMANENT    FUND.  385 

fund  from  which  towns  can  borrow  for  school  purposes.  Thus 
the  fund  may  be  spent  for  school  purposes  again  and  again,  and 
yet  remain  intact  as  an  invested  fund  and  yield  an  income. 

Nor  are  the  possibilities  for  betterment  confined  exclusively 
to  the  state  and  the  immediate  building  of  schools  or  the 'exten- 
sion of  school  facilities.  Carefully  administered  and  worked 
out  in  detail,  this  plan  might  be  made  to  yield  an  ultimate 
saving  of  money,  either  decreasing  the  burden  of  the  towns  or 
permitting  even  larger  expenditures  for  schools  without  in- 
creasing taxation.  The  state  as  a  lender  need  not  insist  upon 
round  amounts,  nor  upon  round  periods  for  its  loans,  nor  on 
long  periods.  In  fact,  the  purposes  of  the  state  would  best  be 
served  by  early  repayment  and  new  loans,  in  much  the  same 
way  that  the  rapid  circulation  of  money  helps  business.  An 
ideal  condition  would  permit  reinvestment  or  expenditure  of  the 
entire  fund  at  least  once  every  decade,  or  at  even  shorter 
periods,  with  five  or  six  years  preferable  to  ten;  the  oftener  the 
better.  The  state  should  also  permit  towns  to  redeem  loans 
from  the  permanent  fund  by  installment  payments,  or  to  cancel 
loans  by  repayment  at  any  time  without  premiums  for  interest 
loss.  Repayment  by  installments  might  be  accepted  by  the 
state  as  a  substitute  for  sinking  funds.  Thus  the  towns  would 
make  a  saving  in  gross  interest  payments,  and  in  net  interest  as 
reduced  by  the  income  from  invested  sinking  funds.  Or  the 
state  might  loan  the  permanent  fund  to  the  towns  at  a  loaded 
interest  rate,  say  eight  per  cent.,  and  apply  the  extra  interest 
to  repayment  of  principal,  or  follow  the  plan  of  real  estate 
dealers  who  accept  periodical  payments,  resembling  rent,  as 
part,  payment  for  property.  • 

Growing  towns  require  new  schoolhouses  almost  every  year 
to  accommodate  increasing  school  population.  School  building 
should  be  financed  from  regular  taxes  or  by  short-time  loans. 
There  is  little  justification  for  long-term  bonds  on  the  theory 
that  in  building  schools  new  generations  are  being  provided  for ; 


386  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

the  future  generations  will  have  their  own  building  burdens, 
and  it  frequently  happens  that  a  schoolhouse  built  on  a  long- 
tefm  loan  needs  alteration  and  repair,  perhaps  rebuilding,  at 
about  the  time  repayment  is  completed.  At  that  period  the 
schoolhouse  may  have  cost  the  town  twice  the  original  expendi- 
ture, if  interest  be  added  to  first  cost.  For  the  purpose  of 
inaugurating  a  reform  on  the  basis  of  short-time  school  loans, 
the  permanent  school  fund  is  available;  it  should  be  made  a 
perpetual  fund  for  this  worthy  purpose. 

As  to  the  income  from  the  permanent  school  fund,  instead  of 
being  turned  into  the  general  treasury  as  a  very  inconsiderable 
and  almost  negligible  offset  to  the  state's  annual  school  appro- 
priation, it  should  be  devoted  to  some  specific  school  purpose 
which  would  correlate  it  intimately  with  the  schools.  It  might 
be  made,  for  instance,  the  source  of  the  fund  for  special  aid  to 
rural  schools  now  administered  by  the  State  Board  of  Education 
and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.  It  has  been  unfortu- 
nate that  no  clear  connection  between  school  appropriations  and 
the  income  from  the  school  fund  has  been  maintained.  Reform 
would  begin  with  placing  the  expenditure  of  this  income  in  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Schools. 

The  permanent  school  fund  should  be  made  a  perpetual  fund  for 
loaning  to  the  towns  for  expenditure  for  school  purposes,  and  the 
income  used  directly  for  education.  Thus  the  fund  may  be  vitalized 
and  a  desirable  interest  in  it  created. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION. 


The  first  Rhode  Island  public  school  law,  the  act  of  1800, 
provided  that  the  schools  to  be  established  under  its  provisions 
should  be  administered  by  town  councils.  Section  10  follows : 

"And  be  it  further  Enacted,  that  the  town  councils  of  the 
several  towns  shall  have  the  visitation  and  government  of  town 
and  district  schools  in  their  respective  towns,  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  preceptors  and  assistants,  and  the  settlement  and 
payment  of  their  compensation,  and  shall  and  may  displace 
them  when  necessary  on  account  of  incapacity  or  immorality." 

The  report  of  the  committee  which  accompanied  the  act  when 
it  was  presented  to  the  General  Assembly  discussed  adminis- 
tration and  the  reasons  for  entrusting  school  management  to 
town  councils,  thus: 

"The  superintendence  of  schools  and  the  office  of  carrying  the 
act  into  execution  is  invested  in  the  town  councils.  This 
authority  being  already  constituted  and  composed  generally  of 
men  of  ability,  integrity  and  weight  in  the  community,  offers 
advantages  as  a  superintending  and  executive  organ  which  the 
creation  of  a  new  body  of  officers,  with  no  other  powers  than 
those  immediately  connected  with  the  exercise  of  their  proper 
functions,  would  not  afford.  The  ample  powers  with  which  the 
town  councils  are  now  invested  would  give  them  an  energy  and  a 
facility  in  executing  the  act  which  no  newly  created  authority 
would  speedily  acquire." 

Except  for  Smithfield's  two-year  compliance  with  the  law, 
Providence  was  the  only  town  in  the  state  which  established 
free  schools  in  1800.  Providence  continued  to  appoint  its  school 
committee,  a  body  whose  history  already  covered  a  period  of 


388  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

almost  half  a  century.  The  school  committee  and  town  council 
worked  together,  sometimes  in  complete  harmony,  and  some- 
times not.  In  the  one  crucial  test  of  authority,  the  town  council 
declared  invalid  the  election  of  a  schoolmaster  by  joint  action 
of  committee  and  council,  deposed  the  schoolmaster  and  chose 
another.  In  the  last  analysis,  the  school  committee  in  Provi- 
dence in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  merely 
an  advisory  body,  or  a  convenient  auxiliary  to  the  town  council, 
on  which  the  council  might  shift  the  more  burdensome  duties  of 
visiting  schools  and  conducting  quarterly  examinations.  In 
1827  the  freemen  in  town  meeting  referred  the  election  of  a 
school  committee  to  the  town  council,  and  a  reform  committee 
of  36  members,  with  President  Francis  Wayland  of  Brown 
University  as  President,  was  chosen.  The  school  law  of  1828 
transferred  the  power  to  elect  the  school  committee  back  to  the 
freemen,  and  made  the  school  committee  a  body  having  a  legal 
status  distinct  from  and  independent  of  the  town  council,  and 
with  specified  powers.  This  general  law,  applicable  to  every 
town  in  the  state,  provided : 

"Sec.  3.  That  at  the  annual  town  meeting  .  .  .  each 
and  every  town  in  the  state  shall  .  .  .  appoint  a  com- 
mittee, which  shall  be  called  the  school  committee,  and  shall 
consist  of  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than  twenty-one  persons, 
resident  inhabitants  of  said  towns,  to  act  without  compensa- 
tion, which  committee  .  .  .  after  being  duly  organized, 
shall  meet  as  often  as  once  in  three  months,  and  oftener  if  occa- 
sion require,  for  the  transaction  of  all  such  business  as  may  come 
before  them  .  .  . 

Sec.  4.  That  the  school  committee  of  each  town  shall  have 
power  to  make  all  necessary  rules  and  regulations  for  the  good 
government  of  the  public  schools  .  .  .;  shall  appoint  all 
schoolmasters  .  .  .  ;  shall  have  power  to  dismiss  a  school- 
master ...  in  case  of  inability  or  mismanagement;  shall 
determine  upon  the  places  where  the  schoolhouses  .  .  . 
shall  be  located;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  committee  to 
visit  all  the  schools  in  their  respective  towns,  as  often  as  once  in 
every  three  months  during  their  continuance,  and  generally, 
to  superintend,  watch  over  and  provide  for  the  good  government 
and  well  governing  of  the  same;  and  in  case  of  death,  resigna- 
tion or  removal  .  .  .  they  shall  have  power  to  fill  the 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.     •  389 

vacancy  so  occasioned  until  the  annual  election;  .  .  .  and 
shall  audit  and  cause  to  be  certified  all  bills  for  the  compensa- 
tion of  masters  .  .  .  and  all  other  expenses  incurred  in  the 
support  and  maintenance  of  such  schools  before  the  same  shall 
be  paid  by  the  town  council ;  and  shall  also  at  said  annual  town 
meeting  .  .  .  render  an  account  of  all  their  proceedings  for 
the  preceding  year." 

The  powers  of  school  committees  were  detailed  somewhat 
more  specifically  in  the  school  law  of  1839,  though  there  was 
little  substantial  change.  By  act  of  1842  school  committees 
were  required,  personally  or  by  committee,  to  examine  and 
ascertain  the  qualifications  and  capacity  for  the  government  of 
schools  of  all  instructors  employed  in  public  schools.  Of  the 
early  school  law  it  may  be  said  that  it  separated  school  admin- 
istration and  the  school  system  from  general  municipal  admin- 
istration and  organization,  through  (1)  the  election  of  the 
school  committee  by  the  freemen,  and  (2)  the  ample  powers 
conferred  upon  the  committee.  The  subsequent  history  of  the 
school  committee  will  show  (1)  a  departure  from  this  plan,  and 
(2)  a  gradual  return  toward  it. 

THE  CONTENTIOUS  EXPERIENCE  OF 
PROVIDENCE. 

The  law  of  1828,  with  its  restriction  limiting  town  appropria- 
tions for  school  support  to  double  the  amount  received  from  the 
state,  might  have  proved  disastrous  in  Providence.  The  town 
had  been  spending  more  than  the  permissible  total  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  and  it  was  committed  early  in  1828  to  an  extension 
of  school  facilities  planned  by  Francis  Wayland,  which  must  be 
abandoned  unless  the  restriction  were  removed.  The  town  was 
exempted  from  the  restriction  by  a  special  act  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  1828.  A  city  charter  became  operative  in  1832. 

Under  the  city  charter,  except  as  to  sharing  in  the  apportion- 
ment of  state  school  money,  Providence  was  further  exempted 
from  the  general  school  law.  The  general  school  law  of  1839 
recognized  the  exemption.  The  Barnard  act  of  1845  also  ex- 


390  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

eluded  the  city,  because  Mr.  Barnard  considered  it  undesirable 
to  interfere  with  the  admirable  system  of  schools  then  estab- 
lished in  the  city.  The  laws  of  1857,  1872  and  1882  provided 
that  "the  public  schools  in  the  said  city  shall  continue  as 
heretofore  to  be  governed  according  to  such  ordinances  and 
regulations  as  the  proper  city  authority  may  from  time  to  time 
adopt." 

Election  of  School  Committee. — The  power  to  elect  the  school 
committee  passed,  under  the  city  charter,  from  the  freemen  to 
the  city  council.  The  school  committee,  which  the  freemen 
had  elected  since  1828,  ceased  to  exist ;  for  it  was  substituted  a 
new  school  committee  of  five  to  thirty  members.  In  1837  it 
was  proposed  in  the  city  council  to  elect  the  school  committee 
by  popular  vote.  An  ordinance  adopted  in  1838  required  ward 
delegations  in  the  city  council  to  name  each  year,  by  filing  a  list  in 
the  office  of  the  city  clerk,  three  candidates  for  election  as  school 
committeemen  by  the  council.  This  was  the  beginning  of  ward 
representation.  Fifteen  years  later  a  new  ordinance  provided 
for  a  committee  of  40,  30  selected  at  large  by  the  city  council, 
and  10  nominated  by  a  committee  of  the  council  consisting  of 
one  member  from  each  ward. 

The  General  Assembly,  in  1853,  was  Democratic;  the  Dorr 
party  had  gained  at  the  polls  control  of  the  government  under 
the  Constitution.  Advantage  was  taken  immediately  of  this 
opportunity  to  confer  upon  registry  voters  in  Providence  the 
same  participation  in  the  management  of  schools  already  en- 
joyed by  registry  voters  in  the  towns.  An  act  was  passed 
establishing  a  school  committee  of  14  members,  consisting  of 
two  members  from  each  ward  in  the  city,  elected  by  the  people. 
The  significance  of  the  change  was  twofold :  First,  the  electorate 
included  registry  voters,  whereas  registry  voters  could  not  vote 
for  city  councilmen  in  Providence  and  had  not  been  even  in- 
directly represented  in  the  choice  of  school  committeemen;  and 
secondly,  it  was  likely  that  the  registry  voters'  choice  would 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  391 

be  one  of  their  fellows,  and  that  the  non-property-holding  class 
would  thus  attain  membership  in  the  committee.  The  Whigs 
gained  ascendancy  in  the  General  Assembly  in  1854,  and  popular 
control  of  the  Providence  school  committee  was  almost  com- 
pletely nullified  by  a  new  act,  which  added  to  the  school  com- 
mittee chosen  by  the  people  14  members  elected  by  the  city 
council,  and  two  ex-officio  members,  the  Mayor,  elected  by  the 
people,  and  the  President  of  the  common  council.  The  Whigs 
had  not  dared  to  restrict  or  take  away  the  suffrage  right  granted 
in  1853;  they  "packed"  the  school  committee.  Still  another 
change  was  made  in  1855,  which  increased  the  membership  of 
the  committee  from  30  to  44  members,  chosen  as  follows:  By 
the  people,  three  members  for  each  of  seven  city  wards,  elected 
for  terms,  respectively,  of  one,  two  and  three  years,  and  after 
the  first  election  one  member  every  year  to  fill  the  vacancy;  by 
the  city  council,  20  members  at  large,  elected  each  year;  ex- 
officio,  the  Mayor,  the  President  of  the  common  council  and  the 
chairman  of  the  city  council  committee  on  education.  The 
longer  term  and  the  election  of  one-third  of  the  popular  mem- 
bership annually  was  intended  to  give  the  committee  stability 
and  prevent  frequent  changes  in  its  entire  personnel;  in  other 
words,  to  offset  the  possibility  of  a  change  in  fortune  at  an  annual 
election.  In  1859  the  law  was  changed  again,  pursuant  to  a 
proposal  for  an  amendment  to  the  city  charter  approved  by 
the  people.  The  20  members  chosen  by  the  city  council  were 
dropped  from  the  committee.  The  size  of  the  committee  was 
increased,  however,  by  provision  for  the  election  of  six  members 
from  each  ward  in  three  classes,  two  members  to  be  elected 
each  year,  who  with  the  three  ex-officio  members,  made  a  school 
committee  of  45  under  the  seven-ward  division  of  the  city.  The 
school  committee  attained  a  membership  of  63  under  a  ten- 
ward  organization.  The  school  committee,  by  the  change,  had 
become  a  popular  committee,  but  it  represented  wards  and 
ward  interests  rather  than  the  whole  city.  By  act  of  1867  the 


392  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

school  committeeman  in  Providence  must  be  a  qualified  elector 
and  resident  of  his  ward,  but  in  1873  the  law  was  modified; 
thereafter  he  must  be  a  resident  of  his  ward,  though  not  nec- 
essarily a  qualified  elector.  After  1889  the  two  members  retiring 
from  each  ward  delegation  were  replaced  by  one  member,  thus 
reducing  the  committee  to  33,  its  present  membership.  The 
biennial  election  law  has  made  the  tenure  of  school  commit- 
teemen  six  years. 

School  Economy? — Of  the  earliest  period,  from  1800  to  1828, 
during  which  the  town  council  was  the  controlling  school  com- 
mittee, Stokes  says  that  school  management  was  characterized 
by  strict  economy.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  his  standards 
for  measuring  economy  were  merely  the  gross  amount  of  money 
expended  for  public  school  support,  and  the  cost  per  pupil.  In 
spite  of  an  increase  of  100  per  cent,  in  population  from  1800 
to  1830  (7614  to  16,836),  there  were,  after  organization  was  com- 
pleted, no  increase  in  the  number  of  public  schoolhouses,  no 
increase  in  the  number  of  masters  and  ushers,  no  increase  in 
expenditure  for  instruction,  no  increase  in  enrollment  and 
attendance  of  pupils,  and  so  little  attention  to  repair  and  reno- 
vation of  school  property  that  10  years  later  a  committee  pro- 
nounced the  schoolhouses  "unfit  for  use  in  their  present  con- 
dition," and  "all  either  too  small,  too  dilapidated  or  too  badly 
constructed  to  be  worth  repairing."  Do  these  facts  bespeak  en- 

0 

lightened  or  true  economy?  Contrast  with  Stokes's  comment, 
this  terse,  suggestive  criticism  by  Francis  Wayland,  in  1827: 
"  Everyone  sees  the  injustice  of  taxing  the  whole  community  to 
support  one  or  two  schools,  to  which  not  more  than  one-tenth 
of  the  whole  number  of  children  can  find  admittance.  The 
same  injustice  will  evidently  occur  if  the  number  of  scholars 
imposed  upon  a  teacher  be  so  great  as  to  render  his  instruction 
of  so  little  value  that  a  large  portion  of  the  community  is  obliged 
to  resort  to  private  schools."  There  were  80  or  90  private 
schools  and  six  or  seven  academies  in  Providence  in  1828! 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  393 

The  short  period  of  the  freemen's  school  committee,  from  1828 
to  1832,  followed  an  improvement  of  schools  inaugurated  by  a 
committee  headed  by  Francis  Wayland.  The  complexion  of 
the  freemen's  committee  would  vary  little  from  the  town  coun- 
cil, while  the  electorate  was  the  same.  In  1837,  five  years  after 
the  school  committee  had  become  a  committee  elected  by  the 
city  council,  the  Providence  Association  of  Mechanics  and 
Manufacturers  complained  :^  "Why  is  it  that  the  middling 
classes  do  not  become  participants  in  this  instruction?  There 
is  evidently  but  one  reason.  They  perceive  that  the  crowded 
state  of  the  schools  alone  would  prevent  proper  attention  to  the 
pupil;  and  they  are  aware  that  with  the  small  sum  which  the 
instructors  receive,  it  is  difficult  to  procure  and  retain  the  ser- 
vices of  competent  persons  to  fill  the  station."  While  it  is  true 
that  the  type  of  economy  indorsed  by  Stokes  was  characteristic 
of  early  school  management  and  was  a  failing  of  a  period  want- 
ing enlightenment  and  guidance  to  reach  an  accurate  under- 
standing of  the  state's  function  in  providing  public  education, 
some  part  of  the  burden  of  criticism  must  rest  upon  a  system 
which  entrusted  management  of  schools  to  a  body  having  so 
many  other  municipal  interests  as  the  town  council,  or  to  a 
body  dominated,  as  was  the  school  committee  elected  by  the 
city  council,  exclusively  by  taxpayers.  Yet  in  1838  the  city 
council  undertook  a  reorganization  of  the  school  system  which 
in  the  course  of  six  years  inspired  the  famous  speech  of  Wilkins 
Updike  in  the  General  Assembly  in  1843,  and  won  an  eulogium 
from  Henry  Barnard. 

City  Council  Control. — The  city  council  permitted  its  school 
committee  liberal  discretion  and  authority  in  the  management  of 
schools,  but  there  could  be  no  question  as  to  control,  while  the 
city  council  (1)  elected  the  school  committee,  (2)  determined  the 
compensation  to  be  paid  to  teachers,  (3)  designated  the  pur- 
poses for  which  school  appropriations  should  be  expended,  (4) 
retained  oversight  of  repairs  and  construction  of  schoolhouses, 


394  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

and  (5)  by  ordinance  conferred  upon  or  deprived  the  school 
committee  of  specific  or  general  powers.  Authority  was 
unitary,  and  the  responsibility  of  the  city  council  was  recognized. 

The  Constitution  of  1843  introduced  a  new  type  of  voter — 
the  registry  voter,  who  had  paid  voluntarily  a  tax  o'f  one  dollar 
for  public  school  support.  In  Providence  he  could  not  vote 
in  the  election  of  the  city  council,  and  thus  was  excluded  from 
even  indirect  influence  in  the  election  of  the  school  committee. 
The  act  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  in  1853  was,  there- 
fore, a  reamrmation  of  the  principle  underlying  the  protest 
against  "taxation  without  representation"  which  had  pre- 
ceded the  Revolution  of  1776,  and,  at  the  same  time  a  reform 
measure  strictly  in  line  with  recognition  of  an  interest  in  public 
school  management  participated  in  by  others  than  direct  tax- 
payers. The  acts  of  1854  and  1855  tended  to  restore  city 
council  control,  but  the  act  of  1859  made  the  school  committee, 
in  its  personnel,  somewhat  independent  of  the  city  council. 
Still,  the  city  council  retained  final  authority  through  (1)  its 
control  of  school  property,  (2)  its  exclusive  functions  with 
respect  to  construction  and  repairs,  and  (3)  its  powers  to  fix  the 
salaries  of  teachers,  (4)  to  designate  the  purposes  for  which 
appropriations  should  be  expended,  and  (5)  to  define  by  ordi- 
nance the  rights  and  duties  of  the  school  committee.  But  it 
had  no  power  to  quiet  conflict  with  a  contentious  school  com- 
mittee by  retiring  recalcitrant  members  thereof  and  changing 
the  committee's  personnel;  and  it  dared  not  exercise  final 
authority  to  its  full  effect  in  the  face  of  popular  sentiment  which 
the  school  committee  could  rally  to  its  support.  Unfortunately 
for  the  public  schools  the  question  of  control  became  an  issue 
in  the  political  controversy  between  taxpayers  and  registry 
voters,  and  incidentally  in  the  broader  political  controversy 
arising  from  suffrage  restriction. 

Particularly  vexatious  to  the  school  committee  was  the  city 
council's  control  of  school  janitors  and  the  placing  of  every 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.         *  395 

school  building  in  charge  of  an  " official"  amenable  neither  to 
teachers  nor  to  the  school  committee.  Moreover  the  restric- 
tions which  the  city  council  placed  upon  salaries  sometimes 
hampered  the  school  committee's  endeavor  to  engage  or  to 
retain  a  superior  type  of  teacher.  It  was  inevitable,  whatever 
the  provocation,  lhat  a  school  committee  elected  by  the  people 
should  chafe  at  control,  and  that  the  city  council,  elected  by- 
taxpayers,  should  seek  to  restrain  freedom  of  expenditure  by  a 
committee  which  had  no  other  interest  in  the  revenue  than 
spending  it.  Thus  there  was  ample  cause  for  friction  between 
the  bodies;  and  municipal  politics  easily  supplied  reasons  for  it. 

Council  vs.  Committee. — The  breach  between  council  and  com- 
mittee opened  widely  in  1883.  The  school  committee  had 
petitioned  the  city  council  for  renovation  of  school  buildings, 
for  new  equipment  in  certain  buildings,  for  installation  of  im- 
proved sanitary  arrangements  made  possible  by  extension  of 
the  city  sewer  system,  for  the  construction  of  eight  new  school- 
houses,  for  exclusive  control  of  school  estates,  and  for  exclusive 
direction  of  the  expenditure  of  school  appropriations.  No 
concessions  having  been  granted  by  the  council,  the  committee 
petitioned  the  General  Assembly  in  1884  to  transfer  control  of 
school  property  from  the  city  council  to  the  school  committee. 
The  proposed  legislation  and  a  bill  requiring  the  city  to  provide 
free  textbooks  both  failed  of  passage.  In  1885  the  school 
committee  asked  permission  of  the  council  to  participate  in  the 
selection  of  plans  for  schoolhouses,  a  charge  of  the  council  com- 
mittee on  city  property,  but  was  refused.  In  the  same  year 
the  committee  notified  the  council  that  it  would  seek  legislation 
permitting  it  to  determine  the  salaries  to  be  paid  to  school 
teachers. 

The  reduction  of  the  membership  of  the  school  committee 
from  63  to  33,  effected  by  the  act  of  1889,  increased  its  efficiency, 
and  likewise  its  persistence  and  influence,  in  spite  of  expectation 
to  the  contrary.  The  committee  in  1890  again  petitioned  the 


396  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

General  Assembly  for  legislation  giving  it  control  of  school  prop- 
erty, without  success.  In  the  same  year  the  city  council  in- 
creased teachers'  salaries  in  amounts  totalling  more  than 
$43,000,  but  it  took  away  from  the  committee  and  entrusted 
to  the  superintendent  of  schools  the  authority  to  purchase 
books  and  supplies.  In  1893  the  city  council's  appropriation 
for  schools  brought  the  amount  available  for  school  support 
$35,000  under  the  school  committee's  estimates,  while  the 
compulsory  free  textbook  law  involved  an  expense  for  the  first 
year  of  $45,000.  The  school  committee  finished  the  year  with 
a  deficit  of  $48,000. 

In  1895  the  city  council  adopted  an  ordinance  requiring  all 
employees  of  city  departments  to  be  residents  or  taxpayers  of 
the  city.  The  City  Solicitor  ruled  that  the  school  depart- 
ment, technically,  was  not  a  "  city  department."  The  ordinance 
had  been  intended  to  apply  to  schools  as  well  as  to  other  city 
departments,  and  needed  only  a  change  in  phraseology  to  give 
it  full  effect.  The  ordinance  would  have  hampered  the  school 
committee  in  seeking  teachers  outside  the  city. 

Committee  vs.  Council.— In  the  same  year  "the  school  com- 
mittee desired  to  organize  one  of  its  departments  in  a  way  that 
was  believed  would  increase  its  efficiency  and  certainly  would 
decrease  its  cost.  Request  for  power  was  made  to  the  council. 
The  ordinance  passed  one  branch,  but  was  held  up  in  the  other. 
After  changes  had  several  times  been  made  to  meet  proposed 
objections,  it  was  finally  found  that  the  reason  for  withholding 
assent  came  from  an  endeavor  to  keep  in  office  certain  teachers 
to  whom  some  of  the  members  of  the  city  government  were 
friendly  and  who  would  lose  their  positions  if  the  ordinance  went 
into  effect.  The  school  committee  felt  that  the  time  for  action 
had  come,  and  that  petty  interference  of  this  kind  could  no 
longer  be  submitted  to,  and  appealed  to  the  Legislature.  In 
1896  an  act  passed  both  houses  of  the  General  Assembly  by 
unanimous  vote,  placing  the  entire  management  of  the  Provi- 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  397 

dence  schools  in  the  hands  of  the  school  committee,  save  only 
the  matter  of  the  erection  and  repair  of  school  buildings  and 
the  determination  of  the  aggregate  amount  of  appropriations 
for  school  purposes."*  The  act  referred  to  simply  placed 
Providence  under  the  state's  general  school  law  except  (1)  that 
the  city  council  retained  control  of  the  repair  and  construction 
of  school  buildings,  and  (2)  that  the  manner  of  electing  school 
committeemen  and  the  size  of  the  committee  were  not  changed 
to  conform  to  the  general  law. 

The  struggle  between  council  and  committee  was  not  ended, 
however.  Since  1896  the  council's  authority  in  school  matters 
has  been  limited  to  its  control  of  the  public  purse,  and  has  been 
exercised  through  its  veto  upon  building  projects  and  through 
limitation  of  the  amount  of  school  money  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  the  school  committee.  A  crisis  was  reached  in  1898-99. 
The  school  committee,  facing  a  deficit  of  $91,000,  was  persuaded 
to  continue  school  sessions  for  the  full  term  in  1898,  but  resolved, 
in  the  name  of  retrenchment,  to  discontinue  evening  schools, 
kindergartens,  and  special  instruction  in  sewing,  cooking,  etc., 
which  had  been  introduced  as  a  beginning  of  industrial  educa- 
tion. The  proposed  curtailment  aroused,  as  it  probably  was 
intended  to  do,  a  storm  of  popular  disapproval  and  a  demand 
for  an  investigation.  The  Mayor  appointed  a  committee, 
which  made  a  careful  study  of  the  situation.  No  serious  mis- 
management or  extravagance  was  found.  The  issue  uncovered 
lay  between  the  city  council  and  the  school  committee,  and  it 
was  a  financial  issue.  The  city  council  had  restricted  appro- 
priations; the  school  committee  had  inaugurated  extensions 
for  which  the  council  had  provided  no  money.  Perhaps  the 
committee  was  as  much  at  fault  as  the  city  council;  at  any 
rate,  it  incurred  the  odium  of  having  precipitated  the  crisis. 
Pursuant  to  recommendation  of  the  investigating  committee, 

*  From  the  address  of  Walter  H.  Barney,  President  of  the  school  committee,  at  the 
Public  School  Centennial  celebration,  October  22,  1900;  printed  in  the  report  of  the  school 
Committee,  1900,  page  270. 


398  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

the  teaching  force  was  decreased,  particularly  in  the  high 
schools;  salaries  for  beginners  and  the  rate  of  improvement  of 
salaries  were  reduced;  instruction  in  sewing  and  cooking  was 
discontinued.  Still  the  committee  was  obliged  to  close  the 
schools  two  weeks  short  of  the  full  term  in  June,  1899. 

The  conflict  between  council  and  committee  has  grown  less 
bitter  in  recent  years,  but  there  is  almost  annually  a  controversy 
over  the  appropriation,  either  when  the  council  reduces  the  com- 
mittee's estimates,  or  when  the  annual  deficit,  which  seems  to 
be  almost  inevitable,  is  reported.  There  was  in  1915  some 
agitation  for  a  law  which  would  place  at  the  disposal  of  the 
school  committee  annually  a  definite  proportion  of  the  revenue 
of  the  city  arising  from  taxation,  besides  the  poll  and  dog  taxes, 
tuition  fees  collected  from  non-resident  pupils  and  the  city's 
apportionment  of  state  school  money.  This  measure  would 
relieve  the  committee  of  the  necessity  of  convincing  the  city 
council  annually  of  its  needs,  and  would  heighten  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  school  committee  to  the  people. 

A  Large  Committee. — No  American  city  of  the  same  size  has 
so  large  a  school  committee  as  Providence;  only  one  American 
city  has  a  larger  committee  than  Providence.  The  prevailing 
tendency  is  toward  smaller  school  committees,  or  compact 
boards  of  education  or  school  commissions.  Without  doubt  a 
smaller  school  committee  or  a  small  school  board  would  replace 
the  large  school  committee  in  Providence  if  there  was  substan- 
tial agreement  as  to  the  method  of  electing  or  appointing  its 
members;  when  this  detail  of  any  proposed  reconstruction  is 
reached,  the  problem  involves  an  issue  whose  solution  apparently 
awaits  a  readjustment  of  suffrage  restrictions.  Election  by  the 
city  council  means  a  return  to  the  system  in  operation  before 
1853,  and  the  elimination  of  the  registry  voter  as  a  factor  in  the 
choosing  of  the  school  committee ;  election  on  general  ticket  or 
appointment  by  the  mayor  suggests  changes  in  political  party 
control.  For  the  committee  as  at  present  constituted,  much  as 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  399 

it  violates  such  theoretical  considerations  as  favor  (1)  a  much 
smaller  body,  (2)  a  body  chosen  on  general  ticket  instead  of  by 
districts,  or  appointed  without  consideration  of  districts,  and 
(3)  a  reduction  of  the  number  and  a  limitation  of  the  powers  of 
sub-committees,  it  must  be  said  (1)  that,  while  local  sectional 
interests  are  not  neglected  by  the  school  committee  in  Provi- 
dence, these  have  given  place  to  a  larger  general  interest,  and 
(2)  that  the  school  committee  has  approached  recognition  of  a 
scientific  division  of  functions  in  school  administration  betwixt 
the  committee  as  a  legislative  body  and  the  superintendent  of 
schools  as  an  executive.  The  committee  is  still  open  to  the 
criticism  that  most  of  its  functions  are  exercised  and  most  of  its 
business  is  considered  in  detail  by  sub-committees,  and  that  it 
has  no  substantial  unitary  organization  of  its  entire  member- 
ship; but  this  is  a  criticism  that  must  be  made  inevitably  of 
so  bulky  a  committee  attempting  to  deal  with  the  mass  of 
details  in  so  large  a  public  school  system;  it  is  a  fault  of  the 
system — not  of  the  committee. 

Rise  of  the  Sub-Committee. — The  sub-committee  of  the  school 
committee  originated  in  April,  1813,  when  "a  committee  for 
the  purpose  of  examining  into  the  qualifications  of  candidates 
for  preceptorships  of  the  public  schools"  was  appointed.  In 
October  of  the  same  year  sub-committees  to  have  charge  of 
the  several  schools  in  the  intervals  between  quarterly  examina- 
tions were  appointed.  The  school  committee  of  1828,  the  first 
freemen's  committee,  appointed  an  executive  committee  of 
three  members,  a  committee  on  accounts  of  two,  and  a  com- 
mittee on  qualifications  of  five,  besides  district  committees.  A 
high  school  committee  was  appointed  when  the  school  system 
was  extended;  committees  on  music  and  evening  schools  in 
1870,  committees  on  drawing  and  penmanship,  vacation  schools, 
by-laws  and  textbooks  in  1880.  In  1897  the  standing  com- 
mittees numbered  18,  and  the  next  year  19.  The  present 
organization  consists  of  19  sub-committees,  mostly  of  five 


400  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

members  each  besides  the  president  of  the  school  committee, 
who  is  ex-officio  a  member  of  all  committees,  as  follows:  Ac- 
counts, annual  report,  apportionment  (finance),  by-laws,  draw- 
ing, education  of  backward  children,  evening  schools,  executive, 
free  public  lectures,  grammar  and  primary  schools  (replacing 
the  committee  on  qualifications),  high  schools,  hygiene,  music, 
penmanship,  private  schools,  relations  to  the  city  council, 
schoolhouses,  summer  schools  and  textbooks.  Each  ward 
delegation  is  a  district  committee  on  the  schools  in  its  ward, 
and  each  member  of  the  school  committee  is  a  visiting  com- 
mittee for  one  or  more  schools.  The  school  committee  employs 
a  clerk,  who  is  ex-officio  secretary  for  all  sub-committees, 
and  is  assisted  by  four  clerks;  a  purchasing  agent,  with  three 
clerks;  a  truant  officer,  with  two  clerks;  a  superintendent  of 
school  property,  with  an  assistant  and  clerk,  among  whose 
functions  is  supervision  of  school  janitors;  besides  the  super- 
intendent of  schools  and  three  assistant  superintendents. 

Ward  Interests. — Recognition  of  ward  interests  in  the  school 
committee  began  in  1838  with  the  ordinance  permitting  ward 
delegations  in  the  city  council  to  nominate  candidates  for  the 
school  committee.  The  law  of  1853  provided  for  popular 
election  of  the  school  committee  by  wards.  The  committee  on 
qualifications  in  1858  consisted  of  one  member  from  each  ward, 
and  in  1868  ward  delegations  elected  each  one  member  of  the 
sub-committees  on  qualifications,  high  school,  music  and 
evening  schools.  Six  years  later  the  committee  on  penmanship 
and  drawing  was  similarly  organized,  but  the  sub-committees 
on  high  schools  and  evening  schools  were  reorganized  without 
reference  to  wards.  In  1887  the  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
education  became  a  member  of  the  committee  on  qualifications, 
failing  to  affect  materially,  however,  the  strong  ward  interest. 
The  committees  on  music,  and  drawing  and  penmanship  were 
reduced  to  five  members  in  1890,  but  the  evening  school  com- 
mittee was  restored  as  a  ward  committee.  Two  years  later  the 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  401 

evening  school  committee  became  a  committee  of  five  members, 
and  the  president  was  given  power  to  appoint  the  committee 
on  grammar  and  primary  schools,  which,  however,  still  con- 
sisted of  one  member  from  each  ward.  In  1897  all  committees 
were  reduced  to  five  members,  to  be  appointed  by  the  president. 
The  prescribed  representation  of  wards  in  sub-committees  was 
a  tacit  recognition  of  ward  interests  in  the  work  of  the  com- 
mittee. Years  were  required  to  eliminate  this  partisan  and 
political  interest,  particularly  harmful  to  the  schools,  as  it 
affected  the  appointment,  discipline,  retention  and  dismissal  of 
teachers.  The  reorganization  of  sub-committees  in  1897 
marked  a  long  stride  forward,  and  in  1899  the  assignment, 
transfer  and  dismissal  of  teachers  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
superintendent;  in  1902  the  appointment  of  teachers,  subject 
to  approval  by  the  school  committee,  became  a  prerogative 
of  the  superintendent. 

The  Superintendent. — Providence  was  the  first  Rhode  Island 
town  to  appoint  a  professional  superintendent  of  schools. 
The  office  was  created  by  ordinance  of  April  9,  1838,  which 
authorized  the  school  committee  to  make  the  appointment. 
Nathan  Bishop,  the  first  superintendent,  was  elected  July  23, 
1839,  and  entered  upon  his  duties  August  1,  1839.  Credit  for 
the  innovation  has  been  assigned  to  Thomas  W.  Dorr,  to  whom 
it  was  suggested  by  the  employment  of  superintendents  in  the 
manufacturing  industries  of  the  state.  Dorr,  though  active  in 
the  school  committee  and  at  one  time  its  president,  and  diligent 
in  performing  every  duty  of  his  office,  recognized  the  service 
which  an  efficient  supervisor,  amply  paid  and  devoting  all  his 
time  to  school  management,  could  render.  At  first  a  visitor, 
inspector  and  supervisor  of  schools,  the  superintendent  grad- 
ually was  entrusted  with  wider  powers,  becoming  in  the  course 
of  time  an  adviser  of  the  school  committee  as  well  as  its 
servant  and  agent. 


402  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Reviewing  briefly :  The  efficiency  of  the  school  committee  of 
Providence  as  an  administrative  body  has  been  affected  by 
attempts  to  control  its  action  exerted  externally  and  internally. 
The  chief  agency  operating  from  without  has  been  the  city 
council.  Providence  was  exempted  from  the  restriction  upon 
school  appropriations  imposed  by  the  general  school  law  of 
1828,  and  the  city  charter  of  1832  extended  the  exemption  and 
provided  for  election  of  the  school  committee  by  the  city  council. 
The  city  council  elected  the  school  committee  from  1832  to 
1853,  and  elected  approximately  one-half  its  membership  from 
1854  to  1859.  The  city  council  substantially  controlled  the 
school  committee  from  1832  to  1896  by  ordinances  fixing  the 
powers  of  the  committee,  and  by  the  retention  and  exercise  of 
functions  essentially  administrative  relating  to  the  public 
schools.  Since  1896  the  city  council's  influence  has  been  limited 
to  control  of  the  public  purse.  Factors  operating  internally 
have  been  the  large  size  of  the  committee,  the  recognition  of 
ward  interests  as  paramount  to  a  general  interest  of  the  whole 
city,  and  the  sub-committee  system,  decentralizing  in  its  effect, 
but  rendered  inevitable  by  the  size  of  the  committee  and  the 
mass  of  business  handled  by  it.  The  ward  interest  has  prac- 
tically been  eliminated.  An  important  factor  tending  to  pro- 
mote efficiency  of  school  administration  in  the  city  has  been 
the  superintendent  of  schools,  the  gradual  extension  of  his 
functions,  and  the  recognition  of  a  division  of  powers  in  school 
administration.  The  school  committee  tends  to  become  a 
legislative  body,  delegating  executive  powers  to  paid  officials. 

INTRICACIES  OF  THE  SCHOOL  DISTRICT  SYSTEM. 

The  Barnard  school  law  raised  the  school  district  to  the 
dignity  of  an  administrative  unit  and  created  a  new  minor 
school  officer — the  district  trustee.  The  district  law  was  not 
complicated,  and  yet  nearly  every  section  of  it  was  carried  to 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  403 

the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  or  the  Supreme  Court  for 
interpretation. 

The  history  of  a  controversy  in  the  town  of  North  Providence, 
centering  in  school  District  No.  3,  shows  the  intricacies  of  the 
district  system,  the  possibilities  which  it  offered  for  intermittent 
and  enduring  controversy,  and  the  trivial  pretext  which  might 
be  made  the  basis'  for  dispute,  conflict  and  litigation.  In  the 
course  of  seven  years,  from  1850  to  1857,  thirteen  appeals  were 
taken  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  or  the  Supreme 
Court. 

The  original  controversy  arose  from  the  school  committee's 
attempt  to  enforce  a  gradation  of  schools  in  a  populous  school 
district,  in  which  conditions  warranted  such  progressive  action. 
John  H.  Willard,  a  grammar  master  in  another  section  of  the 
town,  member  of  the  school  committee  and  its  clerk,  seems  to 
have  been  a  prime  factor  in  the  movement  to  enforce  grada- 
tion. He  was  resolute  and  resourceful,  and  sought  to  accom- 
plish his  purpose  by  use  of  the  means  which  the  law  gave  him. 
When  it  was  clear,  as  was  decided,  on  the  second  appeal,  that 
the  school  committee  could  not  by  direct  means  enforce  a 
gradation  of  schools,  recourse  was  had  to  indirect  methods,  that 
is,  to  limitation  of  certificates  and  withholding  teachers' 
salaries. 

The  people  of  the  district  were  divided  on  the  question.  One 
of  the  earlier  appeals  was  taken  by  two  residents,  who  protested 
a  division  of  the  district.  Two  later  appeals  tested  the  validity 
of  a  record  vote  taken  in  a  district  meeting.  Finally  John  H. 
Willard  himself  felt  the  onus  of  unpopularity.  He  resisted 
successfully  an  attempt  to  reduce  his  salary  as  a  schoolmaster 
or  to  dismiss  him  from  his  position,  and  also  an  attempt  to 
remove  him  from  his  office  as  clerk  of  the  school  committee. 
The  last  appeal  from  North  Providence,  the  thirteenth,  was 
taken  by  John  H.  Willard,  and  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  sustained  the  action  of  the  school  committee,  which 
had  discharged  Willard. 


404  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

March  9,  1850,  the  school  committee  recommended  that 
District  No.  3  build  or  lease  a  room  for  a  primary  school  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  district.  No  action  was  taken  upon  this 
recommendation,  until  at  a  meeting  of  the  district  on  August  6, 
1851,  a  resolution  was  adopted,  voicing  the  opinion  of  the  dis- 
trict that  its  wants  imperatively  demanded  the  establishing 
of  a  primary  school,  and  ordering  that  a  schoolhouse  be  built 
for  the  use  of  the  public  schools  agreeably  to  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  sckool  committee,  at  a  cost  not  exceeding  $1000. 
The  schoolhouse  was  built. 

Meanwhile,  on  November  30,  1850,  the  school  committee 
of  North  Providence  voted  to  divide  school  District  No.  3  into 
two  districts.  From  this  action  James  S.  Healey,  Robert 
Newson  and  others  appealed,  contending  that  the  school  com- 
mittee had  no  power  to  divide  the  district,  because  schools  of 
different  grades  might  conveniently  be  established.  Section  4 
of  the  school  law  was  cited,  which  empowered  the  school  com- 
mittee "to  lay  off.their  respective  territory  into  primary  school 
districts,  and  to  alter  or  abolish  the  same  when  necessary; 
provided,  that  unless  with  the  approbation  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  no  new  district  shall  be  formed  with  less  than 
forty  children,  over  four  and  under  sixteen  years  of  age;  and 
that  no  existing  district,  by  the  formation  of  a  new  one,  shall 
be  reduced  below  the  same  number  of  like  persons ;  and  that  no 
village  or  populous  district  shall  be  sub-divided  in  two  or  more 
districts  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  school  in  each  under 
one  teacher,  when  two  or  more  schools  of  different  grades  for 
the  younger  and  older  children  can  be  conveniently  established 
in  said  district."  It  was  not  disputed  that  there  were  in  each 
of  the  proposed  districts  more  than  forty  children  of  school  age. 
The  Commissioner  held  that  the  portion  of  the  law  respecting 
the  grading  of  schools  should  be  construed  "as  laying  down  a 
principle  for  the  regulation  of  the  discretion  of  the  committee," 
and  concluded:  "In  regard  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  taking  all 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  405 

the  circumstances  together,  and  with  the  probability  that  the 
population  of  the  north  .part  of  the  district,  from  its  vicinity 
to  the  city,  must  be  constantly  increasing,  and  that,  therefore, 
the  district  presents  a  favorable  opportunity  of  carrying  out, 
sooner  or  later,  the  apparent  intention  of  the  proviso,  I  am  of 
the  opinion  that  the  district  ought  not  to  be  divided,  and  the 
decision  of  the  committee  is,  therefore,  reversed."  This  decision 
was  rendered  April  16,  1851,  and  approved  two  days  later  by 
R.  W.  Greene,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

When  the  new  school  was  opened  two  teachers  were  employed, 
AnsorrH.  Cole  and  Miss  Hannah  T.  Smith.  Both  held  certifi- 
cates granted  by  the  school  committee,  Mr.  Cole  a  general 
certificate,  and  Miss  Smith  a  certificate  for  the  new  primary 
school.  It  was  obviously  the  intention  of  the  committee  by 
this  special  certification  to  force  a  gradation  of  schools.  The 
trustees  changed  the  teachers,  sending  Mr.  Cole  to  the  new 
schoolhouse,  and  Miss  Smith  to  the  old  schoolhouse.  On 
January  2,  1852,  the  chairman  and  clerk  of  the  school  com- 
mittee notified  the  trustees  that  the  teachers  must  be  restored, 
and  that  unless  the  change  was  made  the  following  Monday, 
their  bills  would  not  be  allowed.  The  change  was  not  made, 
and  the  school  committee  refused  to  allow  the  bills  for  wages 
after  January  5,  1852.  An  appeal  was  taken  to  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Schools,  who,  after  a  hearing,  held — 

1.  That  the  school  committee  may  promote  by  advice  and 
recommendation,  but  have  no  power  to  compel  a  gradation  of 
schools  by  a  district. 

2.  That  the  committee  have  power  to  limit  and  explain  their 
certificate;    and  that  there  is  no  reason  why  the  certificate 
should  not  express  the  degree  of  qualification. 

3.  That    the    committee    cannot    delegate    their    general 
powers.     To  delegate  a  power  which  is  supposed  to  imply  the 
exercise  of  a  discretion  in  the  committee  seems  contrary  to  the 


406  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

intention  of  the  law  in  giving  such  power  to  the  committee. 
Although  the  committee  has  a  right  to  annul  a  certificate, 
it  cannot  delegate  this  power  to  annul.  Hence  the  action  of 
the  chairman  and  clerk  in  notifying  the  trustees  that  the 
teachers  must  be  restored  was  not  a  legal  annulment.  The 
Commissioner,  therefore,  ordered  the  town  treasurer  to  pay 
the  bills  of  both  Mr.  Cole  and  Miss  Smith. 

The  town  treasurer  refused  to  pay,  and  an  application  was 
made  to  the  Supreme  Court  for  a  writ  of  mandamus.  This 
stage  of  the  controversy  is  reported  in  the  case  of  Randall  vs. 
Wetherell,  2  R.  I.  120.  After  a  hearing  and  consultation  with 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  the  court  held  that  the 
Commissioner  has  no  authority,  under  the  statutes,  to  draw 
an  order  on  the  town  treasurer  for  the  payment  of  school  money. 
His  procedure  should  be  to  render  a  decision,  and  certify  it  to 
the  school  committee.  Upon  the  school  committee's  refusal 
to  act,  it  was  suggested,  a  writ  of  mandamus  might  be  issued 
against  the  school  committee. 

Thereupon  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  issued  a  notice 
to  the  school  committee  to  show  cause  why  an  order  should  not 
be  made  for  them  to  carry  his  decision  into  effect,  and  a  second 
hearing  was  held  on  June  12,  1852.  At  the  conclusion  thereof 
the  Commissioner  issued  an  order  to  the  school  committee  to 
draw  an  order  on  the  town  treasurer  for  the  salary  due  Anson 
H.  Cole,  who  had  held  a  general  certificate  for  the  town,  but 
reversed  his  former  decision  ordering  the  payment  of  Miss 
Smith's  salary,  holding  that  it  was  not  within  the  Commis- 
sioner's authority  to  dispense  with  a  teacher's  having  a  cer- 
tificate. It  will  be  remembered  that  Miss  Smith's  certificate 
had  been  expressly  limited  to  a  certain  school,  and  that  she 
actually  taught  in  another  school. 

The  quarrel  was  not  at  an  end,  however.  A  fourth  appeal 
to  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  was  decided  on  January 
8,  1853.  It  appeared  that  on  October  16,  1852,  the  school 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  407 

committee  refused  to  allow  the  bills  of  Anson  H.  Cole  and 
Hannah  T.  Smith  for  another  term,  on  ground  that  their  cer- 
tificates had  been  annulled  by  the  letter  of  January  2,  1852, 
already  referred  to  in  connection  with  an  earlier  appeal.  This 
time  the  question  to  be  decided  was  simply  that  of  the  effect 
of  the  letter.  Mr.  Cole  had  a  general  certificate,  but  had 
taught  in  the  primary  school;  Miss  Smith  had  taught  in  the 
school  to  which  her  certificate  was  limited.  The  Commissioner 
held,  as  before,  that  the  school  committee  could  not  delegate 
its  power  to  annul  certificates  to  a  sub-committee,  and  ordered 
the  school  committee  to  issue  warrants  for  paying  the  salaries. 
Within  a  week  the  school  committee  rejected  the  claim  of 
another  teacher,  Miss  Abby  Thurber.  Miss  Thurber  held  a 
general  certificate,  but  she  was  notified  by  the  sub-committee 
of  the  school  committee  that  her  certificate  was  annulled  as 
soon  as  she  began  to  teach  in  the  "old  schoolhouse."  She 
taught  in  the -"old  schoolhouse."  In  this  appeal  a  new  point 
was  raised,  namely,  that  the  sub-committee  who  annulled  the 
certificate  was  a  superintendent  of  schools,  with  all  the  powers 
of  the  committee.  Section  7  of  the  school  law  was  quoted,  as 
follows:  "Any  town  may  appoint  or  authorize  its  school  com- 
mittee to  appoint  a  superintendent  of  the  schools  of  the  town, 
to  perform,  under  the  advice  and  direction  of  the  committee, 
such  duties,  and  exercise  such  powers  as  the  committee  may 
assign  to  him."  The  town  had  voted  on  June  3,  1850,  to 
authorize  the  school  committee  to  appoint  "an  agent  to  visit 
the  schools,  at  a  compensation  not  exceeding  one  hundred 
dollars,  to  be  paid  from  the  public  school  money."  The  school 
committee,  on  October  18,  1851,  voted  "that  John  H.  Willard 
be  superintendent  of  the  public  schools  of  the  town  for  the 
current  year,  such  services  to  be  compensated  from  the  residue 
of  the  appropriation  of  $100  voted  last  year  by  the  town  for 
such  purpose."  The  Commissioner  held  that  the  vote  of  the 
town  did  not  authorize  the  school  committee  to  appoint  a 


408  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

superintendent,  and  that  John  H.  Willard  was  not  super- 
intendent. The  committee's  vote  was  reversed,  and  the  salary 
was  ordered  paid.  This  decision  was  approved  by  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

In  the  summer  of  1854,  District  No.  3  voted  to  build  another 
new  schoolhouse,  and  to  assess  a  tax,  but  held  a  later  meeting 
on  August  17  to  reconsider  its  action.  A  motion  to  rescind  was 
declared  rejected  by  a  vote  of  22  to  22.  An  appeal  was  taken 
to  the  Commissioner,  who  reviewed  the  record  vote.  A  record 
vote  required  that  the  name  of  the  voter  and  his  preference  be 
recorded.  It  was  found  that  eleven  who  were  not  qualified  tax- 
payers had  voted;  their  votes  were  declared  illegal,  and  the 
vote  to  rescind  was  carried,  17  to  16.  To  quiet  further  agitation, 
the  Commissioner  ruled  that  a  contract  for  building  could  not 
be  made  legally  until  the  district  had  acquired  title  to  the  school 
lot. 

Another  appeal  was  taken  on  the  same  question  by  Edward 
Finigan  and  Lewis  E.  Heaton,  who  alleged  that  their  ballots  had 
been  illegally  rejected  by  the  moderator  at  the  meeting  on  August 
17.  After  a  hearing  the  Commissioner  decided  that  the  ballots 
had  been  rejected  illegally,  and  as  the  two  men  offered  to  vote 
against  the  motion  to  rescind,  their  votes  should  be  received  and 
counted.  The  vote  therefore  stood  18  for  rejection  of  the 
motion  to  rescind,  and  17  for  it.  Hence  the  vote  had  not  been 
rescinded.  This  decision,  reversing  the  earlier  decision  by  Com- 
missioner Potter,  was  written  by  Commissioner  Allyn,  and 
approved  by  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

The  next  appeal  from  North  Providence  was  from  another 
district,  District  8,  the  Commissioner  deciding  that  he  could 
not  encroach  upon  the  powers,  prerogatives  or  duties  of  any 
officer  below  him,  and  that  he  could  not,  in  this  particular  case, 
issue  a  warrant  for  the  collection  of  a  district  tax,  where  the 
district  trustee  declined  to  act. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  409 

John  H.  Willard,  who  had  been  a  party  to  the  controversies 
in  District  3,  was  the  next  appellant  from  North  Providence. 
He  was  master  of  a  grammar  school  in  District  2,  and  was 
notified  by  a  newly  elected  board  of  trustees  that  they  had  voted 
to  reduce  his  salary,  or  to  dismiss  him  if  he  did  not  accept  a  cut. 
Willard  claimed  an  appeal,  on  ground  that  his  salary  could  not 
be  reduced,  and  that  he  could  not  be  dismissed  within  a  school 
year  without  cause.  The  Commissioner  sustained  the  appeal. 

In  1856  an  appeal  was  taken  from  District  1,  North  Provi- 
dence, to  test  the  legality  of  a  tax  assessment,  and  in  the  same 
year  the  Commissioner  heard  another  appeal  from  District  3, 
on  which  he  decided  that  at  a  special  meeting  of  a  school  district 
no  other  business  than  that  named  in  the  warrant  could  be 
transacted  legally. 

At  the  annual  meeting  in  school  District  3  in  May,  1855, 
three  trustees  were  elected;  one  resigned  in  September,  1855. 
His  resignation  was  accepted  in  February,  1856,  and  another 
trustee  was  elected.  This  election  was  declared  invalid  in  the 
appeal  previously  mentioned.  The  two  remaining  trustees  had 
declined  to  recognize  the  legality  of  the  third  trustee,  and  had 
held  meetings  without  him.  An  appeal  was  taken  from  the 
action  of  the  clerk  of  the  school  committee,  John  H.  Willard, 
who  drew  orders  for  the  salaries  of  teachers  elected  by  the  two 
trustees.  It  was  held  that,  as  two  trustees  did  not  constitute 
a  legal  board,  no  teachers  had  been  legally  elected,  and  the 
appeal  was  sustained. 

On  December  13,  1856,  the  school  committee  declared  the 
office  of  clerk  vacant,  thus  dismissing  John  H.  Willard,  who  had 
been  interested  in  almost  every  one  of  the  earlier  appeals.  No 
notice  was  given,  and  no  opportunity  was  afforded  Willard  to 
be  heard.  The  Commissioner  held  that  the  clerk  could  not  be 
dismissed  without  notice  and  a  hearing,  and  his  decision  was 
approved  by  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 


410  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

Thereupon  the  committee,  on  March  21,  1857,  tried  Willard 
upon  charges,  sustained  them  and  voted  to  dismiss  him.  On 
his  appeal  the  committee  was  sustained,  and  Willard  was  thus 
effectively  dismissed. 

Of  102  decisions  reported  in  the  School  Manual  for  1896  more 
than  three-quarters  involved  sections  of  the  school  law  dealing 
with  school  districts.  The  litigation  involved  almost  every 
phase  of  the  life  of  a  school  district  and  its  various  functions — 
from  creation  to  abolition.  The  decisions  illuminate  the  dis- 
trict law,  and  both  law  and  decisions  give  a  fairly  accurate 
description  of  the  life  and  trials  of  these  historical  organizations. 

Locating  the  District. — The  option  of  administering  town 
school  systems  by  the  town  plan  or  the  district  plan  rested,  in 
the  first  instance,  with  the  town,  under  the  Barnard  law,  but  in 
1846  the  lines  of  all  existing  districts  were  confirmed  by  statute, 
in  order  to  quiet  contentions  raised  by  obstructionists  that  the 
law  of  1845  had  abolished  all  school  districts  previously  created 
and  required  a  reorganization.  Thereafter  new  districts  could 
be  laid  out,  and  district  lines  changed  only  by  the  town  school 
committee.  It  was  held  that  the  authority  of  the  town  meeting 
ended  with  a  vote  to  establish  districts,  and  that  the  actual 
laying  out  and  location  of  boundaries  was  a  function  belonging 
exclusively  to  the  school  committee  (75,  1864,  and  8,  1884*), 
and  that  the  school  committee's  record,  not  the  duplicate  filed 
in  the  office  of  the  town  clerk,  was  the  ultimate  authority  (55, 
1859).  While  the  discretion  of  the  school  committee  in  estab- 
lishing boundaries  was  not  limited,  it  could  not  be  exercised 
arbitrarily;  hence,  a  single  estate  could  not  be  taken  from  one 
town  to  form  a  joint  district  with  a  district  in  another  town, 
when  other  estates  were  favorably  situated  for  the  same  purpose 
(72,  1857).  On  appeal  from  the  vote  of  the  school  committee 

*  Citations  by  number  only  refer  to  the  School  Manual  of  1896.  Of  the  two  numbers 
given  in  each  instance,  the  first  is  the  number  of  the  decision  and  the  second  the  year  in 
which  it  was  rendered. 


SCHOOL    ADMINISTRATION.  411 

the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  might  define  boundaries 
(86,  1848;  confirmed  1852  and  1864),  and  on  refusal  of  the  school 
committee  to  act,  he  had  similar  authority  (88,  1851).  No 
district  providing  for  less  than  40  children  of  school  age  could 
be  laid  out  without  the  consent  of  the  Commissioner.  The 
school  committee  had  power  to  discontinue  a  district  once 
established  by  merging  it  with  another  district  (75,  1875). 
After  1882  the  school  committee  must  give  public  notice  of  any 
meeting  at  which  it  was  proposed  to  alter  school  district  lines. 
The  school  committee  had  power  to  establish  a  school  and 
engage  a  teacher  for  a  district  which  neglected  or  refused  to 
organize,  or  which  failed  to  keep  a  school;  or  to  take  over  and 
administer  the  schools  of  a  district  upon  surrender  by  the  dis- 
trict. 

Corporate  Powers  of  District. — School  districts  were  by  statute 
bodies  corporate,  but  involuntary  corporations,  "brought  into 
existence  without  the  volition  of  their  members,  embracing 
everyone  within  their  limits  nolens  volens."*  Changing  bound- 
aries did  not  break  the  corporate  life  of  a  school  district  (56, 
1881).  The  school  committee  could  dissolve  the  district  cor- 
poration by  merging  the  district  with  another.  Bull  vs.  School 
Committee,  11  R.  I.  244.  The  statutory  powers  of  a  school 
district  were:  To  prosecute  and  defend  actions;  to  purchase, 
receive,  hold  and  convey  real  or  personal  property  for  school 
purposes;  to  establish  and  maintain  a  school  library;  to  build, 
purchase,  hire,  repair  and  equip  schoolhouses ;  to  raise  money 
for  school  support  by  taxes  levied  on  the  ratable  property  in  the 
district,  and  to  elect  district  school  officers.  The  district  pos- 
sessed such  additional,  incidental  powers  as  the  rights  to  borrow 
money  by  note  (10,  1855.  /.  0.  Clarke  vs.  School  District,  3 
R.  I.  199) ;  to  sue  at  law  and  pay  the  costs  of  suit,  to  hire  legal 
counsel  to  prosecute  or  defend  actions,  to  pay  compound  interest 

*  Matteson,  A.  J.  S.  C.,  in  Bull  vs.  School  Committee  11   R.   I.  244,  quoting  Morton,  J., 
in  School  District  vs.  Richardson,  23  Pickering  62,  69. 


412  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

by  agreement,  and  to  make  contracts  (7,  1853).  A  school  dis- 
trict could  not  hire  a  school  teacher,  this  power  belonging  ex- 
clusively to  the  district  trustee  (62,  1856).  A  school  district 
could  not  expend  the  money  for  the  coming  year  (15,  1868). 

The  Taxing  Power. — The  taxing  power  was  most  frequently 
in  litigation.  The  amount  of  a  district  tax  must  be  approved 
by  the  town  school  committee;  approval  might  be  given  before 
or  after  assessment  (32,  1888.  Seabury  vs.  Howland,  15  R.  I. 
446,  explaining  Holt's  Appeal,  5  R.  I.  603),  at  any  time  up  to 
the  time  when  a  warrant  for  collection  of  the  tax  was  issued 
(43,  1854).  The  district  might  rescind  its  vote  to  raise  a  tax 
(7,  1853),  and  the  school  committee  might  rescind  its  approval 
of  a  district  tax  (41,  1853),  but  neither  district  nor  committee 
could  rescind  after  a  valid  contract  had  been  entered  into  pur- 
suant to  the  vote  (6,  1853).  Any  change  in  the  tax  order  re- 
quired a  fresh  approval  (48,  1858*).  After  1884  a  district 
meeting  to  reconsider  action  previously  taken  within  six  months 
could  be  called  only  with  the  consent  of  the  school  committee. 
(P.  L.,  ch.  455.  See  34,  1890).  The  school  committee's  ap- 
proval of  a  district  school  tax  was  not  reviewable  on  appeal  to 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  (40,  1844;  confirmed  1854) 
if  the  tax  otherwise  was  legal,  the  Commissioner  holding  that 
the  school  committee's  approval  involved  a  review.f  The 
amount  of  the  tax  assessed  must  not  exceed  the  amount  ordered 
by  the  district  (55,  1879),  but  the  district  might  order  a  tax  on 
the  percentage  basis,  the  amount  to  be  determined  by  the  assess- 
ment (45,  1856).  A  district  tax  was  not  illegal  because  it  ex- 
ceeded the  amount  of  the  district's  indebtedness  (49,  1859); 
that  is,  the  district  might  raise  money  by  taxation  in  anticipa- 
tion of  its  future  needs.  Real  estate  and  personal  property 
must  be  assessed  separately  (43,  1854).  A  vote  to  assess  a  tax 

*  And  see  Holt's  Appeal,  5  R.  I.  603,  as  explained  in  Seabury  vs.  Howland,  15  R.  I.  446. 
t  Query.     This  question  is  now  academic,  but  it  may  be  questioned  if  the  decision  was 
right.     Cottrell's  Appeal,  10  R.  I.  615. 


SCHOOL    ADMINISTRATION.  413 

within  a  specified  time  was  directory,  not  mandatory;  the  tax, 
for  good  reason,  might  be  assessed  within  a  reasonable  time  (43,- 
1854).     Imperfections  in  a  record  did  not  invalidate  a  tax,  if  it 
was  clear  to  whom  and  on  what  property  the  tax  was  assessed 
(45,  1856). 

Transfer  of  land  did  not  invalidate  an  assessment  and  render 
another  necessary  (92,  1856).  An  estate,  transferred  from  one 
district  to  another  by  change  of  district  lines,  after  a  tax  had 
been  ordered  but  previous  to  assessment,  was  liable  to  assess- 
ment in  the  second  district  (56,  1881).  A  law  exempting  the 
children  of  honorably  discharged  soldiers  and  sailors  and  their 
parents  from  tuition  fees,  did  not  exempt  the  property  of 
soldiers  and  sailors  from  taxation  for  school  purposes  (98,  1878). 
District  taxes  must  be  levied  on  ratable  property  according  to 
its  value  at  the  last  town  assessment  or  the  next  assessment,  if 
so  ordered.  Obviously  the  last  town  assessment  would  not 
cover  satisfactorily  land  taxed  as  one  parcel  and  lying  in  two 
districts,  or  personal  property  of  residents  moving  into  a  district 
after  the  town 'assessment,  or  property  divided  and  apportioned 
after  death  or  by  sale,  or  personal  property  reinvested  in  real 
estate,  or  property  omitted  from  the  town  assessment.  The 
law,  in  such  instances,  provided  for  a  reassessment  by  the  town 
assessors,  after  a  failure  to  reach  an  agreement  by  district 
trustees  and  the  taxpayer  (55,  1879).  The  school  committee 
had  power  to  abate  taxes  where  property  previously  assessed 
for  building  or  repairing  a  schoolhouse  was  transferred  into 
another  district  and  became  liable  to  assessment  there. 

The  period  of  residence  determined  the  residence  for  purposes 
of  taxation  when  a  person  resided  only  part  of  the  year  in  a 
school  district  (51,  1860).  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
might,  after  notice  and  hearing,  appoint  assessors  to  assess  a  tax 
sufficient  to  fulfill  a  contract  legally  entered  into  by  a  district, 
if  the  district  refused  to  order  and  collect  such  a  tax,  but  he  could 
not  enforce  collection  of  a  tax  already  ordered  by  the  district 


414  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

and  only  partly  collected  (91,  1855);  the  last  was  a  function 
of  the  district  trustee.  The  Commissioner's  power  was  limited 
to  instances  where  the  district  itself  failed  to  act  or  could  not 
act  (54,  1877).  The  school  district  tax  could  be  paid  legally 
to  nobody  but  the  regularly  appointed  collector  (44,  1855), 
.  but  the  district  might  designate  the  town  collector  of  taxes  as 
its  collector  (46,  1856).  The  bondsmen  of  a  town  collector 
were  not  liable  for  his  acts  while  collecting  for  a  school  district 
(45,  1854),  a  decision  which  emphasized  the  corporate  separa- 
tion of  town  and  school  districts.* 

District  Meetings. — School  districts,  after  organization,  were 
required  to  hold  an  annual  meeting.  Notice  of  the  time  and 
place  of  holding  district  meetings  must  be  given  by  publication 
in  a  newspaper  published  in  the  district,  or  by  posting  in  two 
or  more  public  places  for  five  days  before  holding  the  same.  A 
notice  dated  six  days  before  a  meeting  was  held  prima  facie 
evidence  of  regularity.  Rowland  vs.  School  District,  15  R.  I.  185. 
In  reckoning  time  the  law  does  not  consider  fractions  of  a  day. 
In  computing  the  five  days  required  for  notice  the  day  of  the 
meeting  could  not  be  counted,  but  the  day  of  posting  could  be; 
hence  a  notice  posted  on  the  ninth  was  valid  for  a  meeting  held 
on  the  fourteenth  (34,  1890).  One  notice  was  insufficient  (29, 
1875f).  Three  notices  were  posted,  one  on  the  schoolhouse, 
one  on  a  building  previously  used  as  a  grain  building,  one  on 
a  board,  6  feet  by  10  inches,  fastened  by  the  roadside;  held 
sufficient.  Seabury  vs.  Rowland,  15  R.  I.  446. 

Special  meetings  might  be  called  by  trustees,  or  by  the  clerk 
of  the  district  if  the  trustees  were  unable  to  act,  at  discretion; 
and  must  be  called  by  the  trustees  or  clerk  upon  the  written 
request  of  five  qualified  electors;  or  by  the  school  committee, 


*  And  see  speeches  of  Arlan  Mowry  and  Edwin  Aldrich,  in  Rhode  Island  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, March  4,  1870,  opposing  the  setting  off  of  Woonsocket  from  Smithfield.  Rider 
collection,  182,  35,  7. 

t  Frink  vs.  Coventry.     Taken  on  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  and  decision  confirmed. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  415 

upon  the  refusal  or  neglect  of  the  trustees  or  clerk  to  act.  After 
1884  no  special  meeting  could  be  called,  without  the  consent 
of  the  school  committee,  to  consider  any  matter  acted  upon  by 
the  district  within  six  months  previous  to  the  meeting.  This 
limitation  was  interpreted  as  if  the  word  "consider"  read 
"reconsider."  It  was  held  that  a  meeting  to  take  additional 
steps  to  carry  out  a  previous  vote  of  the  district  did  not  require 
consent  of  the  school  committee  (34,  1890).  The  call  for  an 
annual  meeting  need  not  (Seabury  vs.  Rowland  15  R.  I.  446), 
that  for  a  special  meeting  must,  state  the  purpose  of  the  meet- 
ing (24,  1856).  It  was  held  that  when  the  object  stated  in  the 
notice  for  a  special  meeting  was  "to  take  action  in  regard  to 
the  collection  of  the  tax  already  assessed,"  it  was  sufficient  to 
warrant  the  election  of  a  tax  collector  (Seabury  vs.  Rowland,  15 
R.  I.  446);  but  a  call  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  ex- 
pediency of  building  a  new  schoolhouse  or  of  enlarging  the  old 
one,  while  warranting  a  vote  to  build  and  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  carry  out  the  vote,  was  not  sufficient  to  warrant 
a  vote  to  purchase  a  new  site  and  to  raise  a  tax  (33,  1888). 

Suffrage  Rights.— Every  person  resident  in  a  school  district 
was  entitled  to  vote  in  district  meetings  to  the  same  extent  and 
with  the  same  restrictions  as  he  might  at  the  time  vote  in  town 
meetings,  but  no  person  could  vote  upon  any  question  of  taxa- 
tion of  property,  or  the  expenditure  of  money  raised  thereby, 
unless  he  had  paid  or  was  liable  to  pay  a  portion  of  the  tax. 
Obviously,  town  voting  lists,  canvassed  for  the  days  of  town 
meetings,  could  not  supply  district  needs  for  meetings  held  at 
other  times.  A  resident  of  a  district  qualified  to  vote  could 
vote,  even  if  his  name  was  not  upon  the  town  list  (23,  1854; 
26,  1859;  8,  1884).  No  specified  length  of  residence  in  a  school 
district  was  necessary  to  qualify  a  voter  (27,  1892).  "Resi- 
dence" was  not  lost  by  temporary  absence  or  occupation  of 
another  domicile  (23,  1884);  residence,  once  acquired,  was 
retained  until  abandoned  (39,  1894). 


416  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

The  law  excluded  from  participation  in  the  district  meeting  the 
property  holder  who  was  not  a  resident,  and  from  voting  on  tax 
questions  the  resident  who  was  not  a  holder  of  property  liable 
to  taxation  in  the  district.  The  last  restriction  was  imperative 
(25,  1856;  8,  1854).  A  husband  could  vote  on  his  wife's  prop- 
erty if  entitled  to  curtesy  in  it  (28,  1878).  A  resident  not 
entitled  to  vote  on  a  tax  question  could  vote  in  the  election  of  a 
committee  to  purchase  a  site  and  erect  a  building,  the  amount 
to  be  expended  having  been  definitely  settled  (20,  1848).  When 
there  was  only  one  taxpaying  voter  in  a  district,  his  vote  was 
sufficient  to  order  a  tax  (52,  1856).  Registry  voters  could  par- 
ticipate in  a  vote  requesting  a  division  of  a  district,  because  this 
vote  involved  merely  an  expression  of  opinion  addressed  to  the 
school  committee,  which  alone  had  the  power  to  divide  (8,  1854). 
Similarly,  a  registry  voter  could  participate  in  a  vote  to  abolish 
school  districts  and  adopt  the  town  plan  (102,  1895),  because 
the  question  involved  was  one  of  policy  and  administration 
rather  than  a  tax  question. 

Conduct  of  the  Meeting. — The  moderator  of  a  district  meeting 
was  required  to  put  all  questions  to  vote  (21,  1848).  The  clerk 
was  bound  to  record  the  proceedings  as  declared  by  the  modera- 
tor (39,  1894).  Evidence  might  be  received  to  correct  or  supply 
omissions  in  a  district  record  (22,  1883),  but  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools  had  no  jurisdiction  permitting  him  to  change  a 
record  (99,  1883).  To  invalidate  the  district's  action,  illegal 
votes  must  be  sufficient  in  number  to  change  the  result  (25, 
1856).  Under  the  system  of  record  voting  it  was  possible  to 
determine  the  number  of  illegal  votes  and  their  exact  effect. 
On  the  request  of  any  qualified  voter  a  record  vote  must  be 
taken.  The  record  must  include  the  names  of  the  voters  and 
how  they  voted.  Even  the  election  of  district  officers  must  be 
by  record  vote  if  requested  (36,  1893) .  Refusal  by  the  modera- 
tor to  permit  a  record  vote  might  be  sufficient  cause  to  invalidate 
proceedings  (35,  1891).  The  record  vote  must  be  demanded 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  417 

before  the  beginning  of  voting;  request  for  it  could  not  interfere 
with  a  ballot  already  in  progress  (30,  1882).  The  moderator 
had  no  casting  vote;  he  must  vote  if  at  all  before  the  poll  was 
closed  (39,  1894). 

Union  Districts. — Any  two  or  more  adjoining  districts  in  the 
same  town,  by  concurrent  vote,  had  the  power  to  unite  as  joint 
districts  to  "establish  a  school  for  the  older  and  more  advanced 
pupils  of  such  districts;"  or,  with  the  approval  of  the  school 
committee,  had  the  power  to  "unite  and  be  consolidated  into 
one  district  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  public  schools," 
losing  thereby  no  portion  of  public  school  money.  Two  or 
more  adjoining  districts  or  parts  of  districts,  in  adjoining  towns, 
could  be  formed  into  a  joint  school  district  by  the  school  com- 
mittee of  such  towns  concurring  therein.  The  law  provided 
for  the  adjustment  of  public  property  rights,  on  consolidation 
or  division  of  districts.  A  joint  district  formed  by  the  con- 
solidation of  districts  in  two  towns  was  dissolved  if  either  town 
abandoned  the  district  system  (38,  1894).  Under  the  law  of 
1884,  which  recognized  the  school,  instead  of  the  school  district, 
as  the  unit  for  apportionment  of  public  school  money,  a  joint 
district  maintaining  one  school  counted  as  only  one,  without 
regard  to  the  number  of  districts  consolidated  (81,  1888). 

The  school  committee  had  power  to  discontinue  school  dis- 
tricts by  merger.  Bull  vs.  School  Committee,  11  R.  I.  244. 
The  right  of  a  town  to  discontinue  all  districts  once  the  district 
system  was  established,  and  undertake  administration  by  the 
town  system,  except  by  unanimous  consent,  seems  to  have  been 
in  doubt.  A  general  power  to  abolish  districts  was  conferred 
by  the  General  Assembly  in  1884,  and  in\1904  all  districts  were 
abolished  by  statute. 

Officers  of  Districts. — The  officers  of  a  school  district  were  a 
moderator,  a  clerk,  a  treasurer,  a  collector  of  taxes,  and  one  or 
three  trustees,  as  the  district  decided.  Election  of  officers 


418  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

required  a  majority  vote;  it  was  held  that  the  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  providing  for  plurality  elections,  in  mentioning 
districts,  referred  to  "voting  districts"  rather  than  "school 
districts"  (37,  1894).  The  same  person  might  hold  more  than 
one  office  when  the  duties  were  not  incompatible;  thus  the 
clerk  might  be  treasurer  or  collector,  but  not  treasurer  and 
collector  (13,  1863).  The  vote  to  elect  one  or  three  trustees 
need  not  be  taken  formally  each  year  (31,  1887).  If  but  one 
trustee  were  elected  at  the  annual  meeting,  that  was  an  exercise 
of  the  option  to  elect  one  instead  of  three;  two  more  could  not 
be  elected  at  a  subsequent  meeting  within  the  year  (63,  1859; 
Richardson's  Appeal,  5  R.  I.  606).  A  board  of  two  trustees  was 
not  in  accordance  with  statute;  where  two  were  elected,  it  was 
held  that  one  trustee  held  over  from  the  previous  year  to  com- 
plete the  triumvirate  (64,  1883).  Defeat  of  the  purposes  of  the 
school  law  by  technicalities  affecting  individual  rights  to  office 
was  prevented  by  recognition  of  acts  of  de  facto  trustees  as 
legal  (14,  1864).  A  trustee  could  not  be  removed  from  office 
during  his  term  without  cause  (16,  1873;  60,  1853).  The  res- 
ignation of  a  trustee  did  not  remove  him  from  office  until  it  was 
accepted  by  the  district;  the  resignation  might  be  withdrawn 
before  being  accepted  (68,  1891).  Registry  voters  were  not 
eligible  to  election  as  district  officers  (14,  1864) ;  district  officers 
were  not  "general  officers,"  and,  except  in  the  single  instance 
of  the  school  committee,  an  officer  must  be  a  qualified  elector 
(9,  1854).  Loss  of  qualification  after  election  did  not,  however, 
render  the  trustee  ineligible  for  service  (57,  1849) ;  this  decision 
must  rest,  perhaps,  on  the  doctrine  of  de  facto  service. 

Powers  of  Trustees. — The  powers  and  duties  of  district  trustees 
were:  To  have  the  custody  of  the  schoolhouse  and  other 
district  property;  to  hire  one  or  more  qualified  teachers  for 
every  50  scholars  in  average  daily  attendance;  to  provide 
schoolrooms  and  fuel;  to  visit  schools  at  least  twice  during 
each  term;  to  notify  the  school  committee  or  superintendent 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  419 

of  the  time  of  opening  and  closing  schools;  to  provide  a  cabinet 
or  bookcase  in  each  schoolroom  for  the  care  of  the  books  and 
school  supplies;  to  make  out  tax  bills  against  persons  liable  to 
pay  them;  until  tuition  was  abolished,  to  make  out  rate  bills; 
until  free  textbooks  were  required,  to  see  that  scholars  were 
provided  with  books;  to  make  returns  to  the  school  committee 
and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools;  to  serve  without 
compensation  from  state  or  town  school  money,  or  from  any 
other  source  except  money  raised  by  tax  in  the  district.  After 
1881  the  trustee  was  forbidden  to  engage  himself  as  teacher, 
but  nepotism  was  not  extirpated  while  he  might  hire  his  son 
or  his  daughter  or  his  "sisters  and  his  cousins  and  his  aunts." 
The  trustees,  if  three,  must  act  always  as  a  board  (62,  1856). 
The  trustees  had  no  power  to  insure  the  district  property  against 
fire,  without  express  authority  (48,  1858;  see  Holt's  Appeal, 
5  R.  I.  603).  The  trustees'  power  to  hire  the  teacher  was  ex- 
clusive; the  district  could  not  hire  the  teacher  (15,  1868;  62, 
1856).  The  trustees'  power  to  hire  the  teacher  included  the 
power  to  determine  the  teacher's  wages  by  contract  (61,  1855), 
but  the  trustees  could  not  reduce  the  teacher's  wages  or  dismiss 
the  teacher  (61,  1855),  the  last  power  belonging  exclusively  to 
the  school  committee  (67,  1852;  confirmed,  1855,  1861).  The 
school  teacher  must  hold  a  certificate  of  qualification  (66,  1849) . 
The  dual  control  of  teachers — the  power  of  the  school  committee 
to  certificate  and  dismiss,  the  power  of  the  trustees  to  hire  and 
fix  compensation — brought  the  committee  and  trustees  fre- 
quently into  conflict.  Transfer  of  the  power  to  hire  teachers 
from  trustees  to  school  committee,  was  more  than  once  recom- 
mended as  a  solution  of  one  of  the  most  irritating  problems 
incident  to  the  district  system.  The  right  to  custody  of  school- 
houses  permitted  the  trustees  some  discretion  in  use;  but  use 
must  be  confined  to  educational  purposes  (5,  1853).  A  public 
schoolhouse  might  be  let  for  a  private  singing  school,  provided 
public  school  sessions  were  not  interfered  with,  even  against  the 


420  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

protest  of  the  district  (12,  1860.     But  see  Barnes's  Appeal,  6 
R.  I.  591). 

Summary. — Under  the  district  system,  the  town  elected  the 
school  committee  and  raised  money  for  school  support  by 
taxation.  The  school  district,  an  involuntary  corporation  with 
specific,  limited  powers,  managed  its  school  through  trustees, 
raised  money  for  school  support  by  taxation  or  tuition  (until 
rate  bills  were  abolished)  supplementary  to  school  money 
received  from  the  state  and  town,  and  provided  schoolrooms 
and  teachers. 

THE  TOWN  SCHOOL  COMMITTEE. 

The  school  committee,  under  the  act  of  1828,  was  an  adminis- 
trative agency  with  liberal  powers  for  school  management  where 
towns  made  adequate  provision  for  school  support.  The  Bar- 
nard act  not  only  permitted  division  of  towns  into  school  dis- 
tricts, but  also  distributed  administrative  powers  betwixt  the 
town  school  committee  and  the  trustees  of  school  districts. 

The  general  powers  of  the  school  committee  were:  (1)  To 
elect  a  chairman  and  clerk,  (2)  to  meet  quarterly,  (3)  to  form, 
alter  and  discontinue  school  districts  and  settle  district  bounda- 
ries, (4)  to  locate  schoolhouse  sites,  (5)  to  examine  and  certifi- 
cate teachers  and  to  annul  certificates,  (6)  to  visit  all  schools  at 
least  twice  each  term,  (7)  to  suspend  or  expel  incorrigibly  bad 
pupils,  (8)  to  prescribe  rules  and  regulations  for  admission  and 
attendance  of  pupils,  and  for  their  classification,  studies,  books, 
and  discipline,  and  methods  of  instruction,  (9)  to  fill  vacancies 
in  their  own  number  pending  an  election,  (10)  to  apportion  state 
and  town  school  money  to  school  districts,  and  draw  orders  on 
the  treasury  therefor,  (11)  to  report  annually  to  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Schools  and  to  the  town,  (12)  to  exercise  the 
powers  prescribed  for  trustees  where  the  town  was  not  divided 
into  districts,  (13)  to  apportion  and  adjust  property  rights 
when  districts  were  divided  or  consolidated,  (14)  to  approve 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  421 

district  taxes  and  tuition  rates,  (15)  to  conduct  schools  and  en- 
gage teachers  in  districts  neglecting  to  provide  schools  or  hire 
teachers,  (16)  to  make  arrangement  for  the  attendance  of 
children  at  schools  in  towns  or  districts  other  than  the  town  or 
district  of  residence,  if  more  advantageous.  These  very  im- 
portant matters  of  school  administration  and  management 
were  entrusted  to  district  school  trustees:  (1)  The  care  and 
control  of  district  school  buildings,  (2)  the  hiring  of  schoolrooms 
where  no  building  was  provided  by  the  district,  (3)  the  supply- 
ing of  fuel  and  equipment,  and  (4)  the  hiring  of  teachers. 

Criticism  of  District  System. — Theoretically  the  division  of 
powers  might  prove  beneficial.  From  this  point  of  view,  the 
trustees  constituted  a  minor  school  committee,  representing  the 
locality  and  having  direct  charge  and  care  and  control  of  the 
local  school.  Local  responsibility  was  emphasized;  local 
pride,  local  ambition  to  excel  and  local  interest  in  the  school 
should  insure  strong  support  and  efficient  management.  More- 
over, beyond  the  local  committee  was  the  town  school  com- 
mittee, with  authority  to  conserve  the  interests  of  the  whole 
town  in  the  local  school  enterprise;  with  power  to  regulate  and 
standardize  essential  details,  including  the  making  of  rules  and 
regulations,  the  selection  of  textbooks,  determining  courses  of 
study  and  methods  of  instruction,  etc.,  and  the  right  to  super- 
sede the  trustees  in  instances  of  total  neglect.  Consistently 
with  the  theory  of  local  interest,  however,  there  could  be  no 
contingency  approximating  partial  neglect,  not  to  mention  a 
situation  so  utterly  impossible  as  one  involving  total  neglect. 

The  inherent  fallacy  of  the  district  system  requires  no  re- 
course to  analysis  and  logic  for  demonstration;  in  Rhode  Island 
it  was  proved  by  practice  and  experience.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  district  system  seldom  developed  earnest  emulation  or 
rivalry  for  leadership  in  excellence.  The  good  school  generally 
maintained  by  the  wealthy  district  was  beyond  the  purse  of 
the  taxpayers  in  a  poorer  community.  Gross  inequalities  were 


422  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

produced  by  the  system,  both  in  taxation  for  school  support 
and  in  opportunities  for  education.  Effort  was  scarcely  needed 
where  tax  revenue  was  abundant;  effort  might  prove  almost 
in  vain  elsewhere.  The  situation  of  total  neglect  seldom  de- 
veloped; hence,  generally  the  school  committee's  influence  was 
limited  to  admonition  and  moral  suasion.  The  committee's 
powers  were  negative  rather  than  positive;  it  could  act  but 
rarely;  it  was  almost  impotent  when  power  was  needed  to 
enforce  its  effort  for  improvement.  Taken  altogether,  in  the 
broad  light  of  actual  experience,  the  Barnard  act,  so  far  as  it 
introduced  the  school  district  system  in  Rhode  Island,  was  a 
recession  from  the  ideal  of  an  independent,  centralized  school 
organization  which  appeared  clearly  in  the  act  of  1828.  The 
story  of  the  struggle  of  more  than  half  a  century  to  recover  the 
ground  lost  by  this  "-reform"  has  been  told  in  earlier  chapters. 

Powers  of  School  Committee. — Of  the  sixteen  powers  of  school 
committees  enumerated,  among  those  not  already  discussed  in 
connection  with  school  districts  which  warrant  consideration 
are  the  powers  to  locate  schoolhouse  sites,  to  examine  and  cer- 
tificate teachers,  to  visit  and  inspect  schools,  to  make  rules  and 
regulations  for  schools,  and  to  apportion  school  money. 

The  school  committee  has  exclusive  power  to  locate  school- 
house  sites;  no  other  location  is  legal  or  binds  the  town.  Dube 
vs.  Peck,  22  R.  I.  443;  Dube  vs.  Dixon,  27  R.  I.  115.  The 
power  to  locate  schoolhouse  sites  was,  under  the  district  system, 
an  essential  corollary  to  the  power  to  lay  out  districts;  the 
purpose  of  a  careful  delineation  of  district  boundaries  might  be 
defeated  were  authority  to  choose  the  site  conferred  upon 
another  body.  Horace  Mann  and  Henry  Barnard  both  be- 
lieved that  the  schoolhouse  should  be  carried  to  the  child — in 
the  sense  that  it  should  be  conveniently  located  and  easy  of 
access.  Henry  Barnard's  earliest  report  emphasized  the  im- 
portance of  careful  attention  to  location.  The  geographical 
centre  of  a  rural  district  might  be  a  mile  away  from  the  centre 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  423 

of  population;  the  confluence  of  convenient  highways  must 
not  be  disregarded.  Perhaps  it  was  this  last  consideration 
which  dictated  the  location  of  several  schoolhouses  in  the  middle 
of  the  road.*  Placing  the  power  to  locate  the  schoolhouse  site 
in  the  hands  of  the  school  committee  removed  this  important 
matter  from  the  domain  of  factional  politics  in  the  school  dis- 
trict. Location  was  of  almost  equal  importance  under  the 
town  system,  particularly  where  the  area  of  the  town  was  exten- 
sive and  the  population  scattered  or  grouped  in  isolated  villages. 
The  question  of  convenient  location  is  raised  most  frequently 
at  the  present  time  in  connection  with  the  consolidation  of 
small  schools  for  purposes  of  establishing  graded  schools,  or 
in  connection  with  high  schools.f  The  school  committee's 
power  to  furnish  transportation  for  pupils  solves  some  problems 
of  location;  the  extension  of  electric  traction  service  has  been 
of  incalculable  value  to  town  school  systems  in  Rhode  Island. 
Thus  the  Mann-Barnard  axiom  has  been  reversed,  and  instead 
of  carrying  the  school  to  the  child,  the  child  is  carried  to  the 
school. 

So  important  a  power  as  locating  the  schoolhouse  site  could 
not  be  exercised  without  creating  dissatisfaction,  if  it  were  no 
more  than  neighborhood  jealously  arising  from  a  comparison 
of  the  distance  to  be  walked  by  children  on  their  way  to  and  from 
school.  On  the  other  hand,  in  one  instance  at  least,  the  pro- 
pinquity of  the  schoolhouse  was  considered  a  grievance.  It 
was  held  that  a  schoolhouse  was  not  a  nuisance,  and  that  the 
motive  which  prompted  a  gift  of  a  schoolhouse  site,  if  the  latter 
was  acceptable  to  the  school  committee,  was  immaterial  (78, 
1881).  In  the  particular  case  a  district  philanthropist  donated 
$500,  on  condition  that  it  be  applied  to  purchasing  a  lot  for  a 

*  Barnard's  first  report.  The  same  situation  may  still  be  observed  in  New  England 
towns,  where  ancient  public  buildings  stand  in  the  highway,  which  divides  and  passes  on 
both  sides  of  the  structure,  to  reunite  beyond. 

t  For  geographical  centre,  the  Warwick  high  school  at  Westcott,  now  West  Warwick. 
For  population  centres,  the  Cumberland  high  school  at  Valley  Falls,  and  the  Cranston 
high  school. 


424  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

schoolhouse  site  next  to  the  dwelling  house  of  the  appellant, 
with  whom  the  philanthropist  was  not  on  good  terms;  the 
appellant,  who  alleged  that  the  philanthropist  was  actuated 
by  spite,  was  without  a  remedy. 

An  early  decision  (Gardner's  Appeal,  4  R.  I.  602,  1858)  that 
the  school  committee's  selection  of  a  schoolhouse  site  was 
final,  and  that  no  appeal  therefrom  lay  to  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  was  overruled.  Cottrell's  Appeal,  10  R.  I. 
615,  1874.  Vastly  more  important  for  school  administration 
than  the  narrow  point  decided  by  the  ruling  case  was  the  broad 
principle  upon  which  the  decision  rested.  The  earlier  case  had 
declared  that  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools  was  limited  to  reviewing  actions  of  a  school 
committee  which  involved  an  infraction  of  law;  the  later  decis- 
ion enunciated  the  doctrine  that  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  might  hear  and  decide  appeals  from  lawful  acts  of  a 
school  committee  lying  within  the  discretionary  exercise  of 
authority  conferred  by  law.  The  Commissioner's  appellate 
jurisdiction  thus  became  supervisory  and  administrative,  not 
merely  remedial. 

When,  in  due  course  of  time,  the  necessity  appeared  for  pro- 
viding a  method  of  condemning  land  for  school  purposes,  it  was 
natural  that  the  new  power  should  be  conferred  upon  the  school 
committee.*  The  condemnatory  procedure  was  simple  in 
detail,  as  befitted  the  design  to  make  it  effective  in  the  hands 
of  laymen  unacquainted  with  the  technicalities  of  law.  In  its 
earliest  form  the  statute  provided  that  the  school  committee, 
after  selecting  and  locating  a  site  for  a  schoolhouse,  which  the 
school  district  had  voted  to  build,  should  agree  with  the  owners 
as  to  the  price  to  be  paid,  or,  failing  to  reach  an  agreement, 
should  appoint  three  appraisers  to  determine  the  value;  upon 
tender  of  the  price  named  by  the  appraisers,  title  passed.  The 
appraisers  were  required  to  hear  the  owners  of  the  land  and 

*  Act  of  1859. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  425 

representatives  of  the  district,  both  present  at  the  same  time 
(95,  1863).  Both  the  district's  vote  to  build  and  the  school 
committee's  choice  of  a  site  must  precede  condemnation, 
although  either  might  precede  the  other,  the  statute  prescribing 
no  particular  order.  Condemnation  through  appraisal  and 
.tender  could  not  proceed  until  an  attempt  to  reach  an  agree- 
ment with  the  owner  had  failed  (17,  1885;  18,  1887;  19,  1888. 
Rowland  vs.  School  District,  15  R.  I.  185).  As  perfected,  the 
statute  provides  that  title  to  property  condemned  for  school 
purposes  shall  pass  when  the  school  committee  files  in  the  town 
records  a  plat  or  description  of  the  site;  that  the  school  com- 
mittee thereafter  may  agree  with  the  owners  as  to  the  price, 
and  that  the  owners,  in  default  of  agreement,  may  petition  the 
Superior  Court  for  an  assessment  by  a  jury. 

Certificates  of  Teachers. — The  school  district  trustee  hired  the 
school  teacher,  but  the  teacher  must  hold  a  certificate  of  quali- 
fication issued  by  the  school  committee,  a  county  inspector  or 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.*  The  school  committee 
might  refuse  to  examine  a  candidate  for  a  certificate  if  his  moral 
character  was  known  to  be  unsatisfactory  (82, 1855).  A  certifi- 
cate issued  by  a  school  committee  did  not  qualify  the  holder 
to  teach  in  a  secondary  (grammar)  school ;  it  was  limited  to  one 
year  and  to  the  town  of  issue.  The  committee  might  further 
limit  its  certificate  to  a  particular  school  (68,  1852;  69,  1852). 
The  school  committee  had  power  to  annul  certificates  for  good 
cause  (69,  1852),  but  a  teacher  holding  a  certificate  was  entitled 
to  notice  and  a  hearing  before  annulment  (83,  1855).  The 
power  to  annul  could  not  be  exercised  by  a  single  member  of 
the  committee  (83,  1855),  or  delegated  to  the  clerk  of  the  com- 
mittee (68,  1852;  69,  1852).  When  the  power  to  dismiss  the 
teacher  was  created  by  statute,  it  was  conferred  upon  the  school 
committee;  the  district  trustee,  who  hired,  could  not  dismiss  the 
teacher  (67,  1852;  affirmed  1855  and  1861).  The  school  com- 

*  Barnard  act.     See  chapters  6  and  10  for  development  of  certification. 


426  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

mittee  could  dismiss  a  teacher  holding  a  county  certificate  (83, 
1855) :  Semble,  the  school  committee  still  possesses  the  power 
to  dismiss  a  teacher  for  cause,  although  the  committee  no  longer 
possesses  the  power  to  certificate  teachers.  A  teacher  without 
a  certificate  (66,  1849),  or  a  teacher  dismissed  by  the  school 
committee  (82,  1855)  could  not  draw  teachers'  money.  Under 
the  town  system,  however,  a  school  committee  that  hired  a 
teacher  without  examination  and  certification,  waiving  its 
right  to  examine  before  hiring,  bound  the  town  for  the  teacher's 
wages  (85,  1895) ;  the  committee  was  not  allowed  to  set  up  its 
own  unlawful  act,  to  defeat  an  action  on  a  contract.  Under 
the  district  system  the  town  was  not  liable  for  the  teacher's 
wages  unless  the  school  committee  issued  an  order  on  the  town 
treasurer  therefor  (97,  1877);  the  district  was  the  debtor, 
though  state  and  town  school  money  available  for  the  payment 
of  teachers  in  district  schools  was  in  the  town  treasury.  The 
certification  of  teachers  became  exclusively  a  function  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education  in  1898. 

Visitation  and  Inspection. — The  school  committee's  power  to 
visit  and  inspect  schools  was  a  duty  as  well  as  a  privilege,  two 
visits  each  term  being  required.  How  the  town  council  of 
Providence  thrust  this  burdensome  obligation  upon  the  school 
committee,  when  the  latter  body  was  secondary  to  the  council, 
has  been  related.  The  importance  of  the  visitorial  power  was 
emphasized  in  the  evolution  of  the  system  of  school  administra- 
tion in  Providence.  After  experimenting  with  visitation  and 
examination  by  committees  of  clergymen,  the  notion  of  expert 
superintendence  was  carried  to  fruition  under  the  leadership  of 
Dorr.  Delegation  of  the  visitorial  power  had  become  a  practice 
in  some  Rhode  Island  towns  previous  to  1850;  the  revised 
school  law  of  1851  permitted  towns  to  employ  superintendents 
of  schools.  Twenty  years  later  the  employment  of  a  super- 
intendent became  compulsory  through  the  statutory  require- 
ment that  the  school  committee  appoint  a  superintendent  where 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  427 

the  town  failed  to  elect  one.*  Although  the  school  committee 
was  given  exclusive  power  to  elect  the  superintendent  of  schools 
in  1884,  the  influence  of  town  meeting  control  remained  effective 
while  the  town  regulated  the  superintendent's  salary,  as  it  did 
until  1902.  In  1903  the  state  undertook  to  promote  the  im- 
provement of  supervision  through  payment  of  part  of  the  salaries 
of  full-time  expert  superintendents. 

The  power  to  visit  and  inspect  was  a  corollary  to  the  power  to 
make  rules  and  regulations  for  the  government  of  schools.  The 
district  trustees  were  required  to  notify  the  school  committee 
of  the  time  of  opening  and  closing  schools,  that  the  school  com- 
mittee might  make  the  two  visits  required  by  statute,  within 
two  weeks  of  the  beginning  and  ending  of  the  term.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  statute  creating  the  power  to  make  rules  and  regu- 
lations was  liberal.  The  admission  and  exclusion  of  pupils,  the 
conduct  of  schools,  methods  of  instruction,  and  selection  of 
textbooks  and  courses  of  study  were  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  school  committee.  Still,  the  school  committee  wanted  the 
powers  to  compel  a  gradation  of  schools  (69,  1852),  to  enforce 
a  school  term  longer  than  the  statutory  minimum,  to  select  the 
teacher  and  to  determine  salaries  whereby  to  insure  high  grade 
instruction;  even  the  power  to  dismiss  an  unsatisfactory  teacher 
must  be  exercised  with  discretion  and  caution,  lest  avoidance 
of  the  evil  of  poor  instruction  involve  the  closing  of  a  school. 

Division  of  School  Money. — Finally,  the  power  to  apportion 
school  money  was  less  flexible  under  the  Barnard  act  than  it  had 
been  previously.  One  of  the  reforms  proposed  by  Henry  Bar- 
nard had  been  the  adoption  of  a  ratio  for  apportioning  school 
money,  which  would  insure  an  equitable  distribution.  The 
purpose  of  the  reform  was  to  prevent  discrimination  of  an  unfair 
sort;  the  reform  ripened  into  a  statutory  ratio  for  the  appor- 
tionment of  state  school  money  determined  by  the  number  of 

*  The  city  council  succeeded  the  town  meeting,  and  had  power  to  elect  the  superintendent 
of  schools.     Verry  vs.  School  Committee,  12  R.  I.  578. 


428  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

school  districts  and  average  daily  attendance,  while  the  dis- 
tribution of  town  school  money  was  at  the  discretion  of  the 
school  committee,  when  the  town  made  no  specific  order  for 
distribution.  Town  school  money  tended  to  be  most  con- 
spicuous for  the  want  thereof  in  the  earlier  years  under  the 
Barnard  act.  The  ultimate  consequence  of  the  Barnard  law 
was  practically  an  equal  division,  wealthy  and  poorer  districts 
sharing  very  nearly  alike.  Later  statutes  tended  to  make  the 
power  to  apportion  school  money  more  ministerial  and  less 
discretionary  as  ratios  of  distribution  were  "perfected."*  The 
abolition  of  districts  solved  the  problem  by  disposing  of  it; 
the  power  to  apportion  to  schools  replaced  the  power  to  appor- 
tion to  districts,  with  the  basis  of  distribution  founded  almost 
inevitably  upon  standardization.  Comparison  makes  gross 
contrast  between  school  conditions  within  a  town  odious, 
unendurable  and  impossible  of  maintenance;  and  practically 
forbids  an  inequitable  distribution.  Equality  of  school  oppor- 
tunity must  succeed  equality  of  apportionment  as  the  true  test 
for  the  division  of  school  money. 

Weakness  of  District  System. — In  the  review  of  five  of  the 
sixteen  powers  of  the  town  school  committee — the  powers  to 
locate  schoolhouse  sites,  to  certificate  teachers,  to  visit  and 
inspect  schools,  to  make  rules  and  regulations  and  to  apportion 
school  money — three  new  powers  have  appeared — the  powers 
to  condemn  land  for  school  purposes,  to  dismiss  unsatisfactory 
teachers  and  to  appoint  a  superintendent  of  schools — all  im- 
portant, substantial  powers,  tending  to  strengthen  the  position 
of  the  school  committee.  Yet  the  same  review  has  disclosed 
lamentable  weakness,  arising  from  the  division  of  powers 
betwixt  the  school  committee  and  the  school  district  organiza- 
tion. Together,  the  powers  conferred  on  school  committee 
and  upon  school  district  were  ample,  had  they  been  conferred 
upon  one  body;  when  the  powers  were  divided  betwixt  two 

*  See  chapter  on  School  Finance — Apportionment,  for  history  of  ratio. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  429 

bodies  the  school  committee  became  an  advisory  rather  than 
an  executive  body,  where  force  was  needed  for  improvement. 
The  school  committee  could  locate  the  schoolhouse  site  and 
approve  the  plans  for  building,  but  it  could  not  compel  the 
building  of  a  schoolhouse;  the  school  committee  could  approve 
or  disapprove  a  proposed  district  school  tax,  but  it  could  not 
compel  the  district  to  assess  a  tax;  the  school  committee  could 
examine,  certificate  and  dismiss  teachers,  but  the  power  to  hire 
the  teacher  and  to  fix  his  compensation  rested  with  the  trustee ; 
the  committee  could  make  rules  and  regulations,  but  could  not 
compel  a  district  to  grade  its  school.  The  presumably  superior 
body,  selected  by  a  larger  electorate,  averaging  higher  intel- 
lectually in  all  probability  because  of  the  wider  selection,  was 
balked  by  the  school  district  or  the  well-entrenched  district 
trustee,  himself  a  taxpayer  and  a  representative  of  the  tax- 
payers— at  the  same  time  that  the  district  derived  no  small 
part  of  the  school  revenue  raised  within  the  district  from  rate 
bills.  These  evils  were  swept  away  when  school  districts  were 
abolished. 

The  loss  of  the  committee's  power  to  examine  and  certificate 
teachers,  already  noted,  as  the  power  passed  to  a  higher  au- 
thority,* marked  a  forward  step  in  the  direction  of  standardiza- 
tion for  the  schools  of  the  state  as  a  whole.  The  school  com- 
mittee's power  to  fill  vacancies — embracing  under  the  act  of 
1845  the  replacing  of  district  trustees  as  well  as  school  com- 
mitteemen — was  abridged  as  to  trusteeships  by  the  revised 
school  law  of  1851,  and  lost  altogether  in  the  revision  of  the 
statutes  in  1872.  Except  as  in  Providence,  where  under  a 
special  law  ward  delegations  fill  vacancies  in  their  own  mem- 
bership, the  town  council  fills  vacancies  in  the  town  school  com- 
mittee until  the  following  annual  or  biennial  election.  To  the 
powers  thus  lost  must  be  added  those  which  were  merely  inci- 
dental to  the  district  organization,  and  which  passed  away  with 

*  The  State  Board  of  Education,  1898. 


430  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

the  abolition  of  the  district  system.  These  were  the  powers  to 
form,  alter  and  discontinue  districts  and  settle  district  bounda- 
ries; to  apportion  school  money  to  school  districts;  to  apportion 
and  adjust  property  rights  when  districts  were  divided,  altered 
or  consolidated;  to  approve  district  school  taxes  and  tuition 
rates,  and  to  supersede  trustees  where  districts  failed  to  main- 
tain schools.  Their  loss  was  more  than  compensated  for  by 
powers  gained  by  the  school  committee,  which  previously  had 
been  exercised  by  district  trustees.  These  were  the  powers  to 
have  the  custody,  care  and  control  of  school  property;  to  pro- 
vide fuel  and  equipment  for  schools;  to  employ  teachers;  to 
provide  textbooks  for  indigent  pupils,  and,  in  general,  to  manage 
and  direct  schools.  In  the  metamorphosis  the  school  com- 
mittee became  an  executive  where  it  had  been  merely  a  coun- 
sellor with  little  power  to  enforce  its  advice. 

Rehabilitation  of  the  School  Committee. — Through  the  abolition 
of  school  districts  the  town  school  committee  was  rehabilitated; 
it  returned  to  possession  of  the  liberal  powers  conferred  upon  it 
by  the  earlier  school  acts,  from  1828  to  the  Barnard  act.  These 
powers  had  been  defined  more  and  more  clearly  as  school  legis- 
lation was  perfected.  Stokes  declares  that  one  cause  for  dis- 
satisfaction pervading  the  Providence  school  committee  was 
its  own  inferior  position  and  subserviency  to  the  city  council 
when  compared  with  the  freedom  from  restraint  enjoyed  by 
town  school  committees.  These  were  the  powers  and  duties 
with  which  the  town  school  committee  emerge^  from  the 
abandonment  of  the  school  district  system:  (1)  Exclusively 
to  care  for,  control  and  manage,  subject  to  the  supervision  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  all  the  public  school 
interests  of  the  town,  and  to  draw  all  orders  on  the  town  treasury 
for  the  payment  of  school  expenses;  (2)  to  organize  by  choice 
of  a  chairman  and  clerk,  and  to  hold  at  least  four  regular  meet- 
ings annually;  (3)  to  visit  and  inspect  schools;  (4)  to  elect  a 
superintendent  of  schools;  (5)  to  make  rules  and  regulations 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  431 

for  the  attendance  and  classification  of  pupils,  for_the  intro- 
duction of  textbooks,  and  for  the  instruction,  government  and 
discipline  of  public  schools;  (6)  to  locate  schoolhouse  sites  and 
to  condemn  land  for  school  purposes ;  (7)  to  abandon  and  change 
the  location  of  schoolhouses;  (8)  to  change  textbooks,  by  two- 
thirds  vote  of  the  committee,  not  oftener  than  once  in  three 
years  without  permission  of  the  State  Board  of  Education; 
(9)  to  select  and  dismiss  teachers;  (10)  to  prescribe  courses  of 
study;  (11)  to  provide  for  attendance  of  children  at  schools  in 
neighboring  towns  if  more  convenient;  (12)  to  suspend  in- 
corrigibly bad  pupils  or  persistent  violators  of  rules  and  regula- 
tions; (13)  to  report  annually  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  and  (14)  to  report  annually  to  the  town  meeting.  The 
following  additional  powers  have  been  conferred  upon  the  school 
committee,  some  prior  to  complete  abolition  of  the  district 
system,  others  later:  (15)  To  provide  each  schoolhouse  with  a 
United  States  flag  and  to  cause  the  flag  to  be  displayed  during 
school  hours;  (16)  to  provide  free  textbooks  and  supplies  for 
all  pupils;  (17)  to  approve  private  schools  for  purposes  of  school 
attendance  in  lieu,  of  compulsory  attendance  at  public  schools; 
(18)  to  take  an  annual  school  census;  (19)  to  provide  for  free 
attendance  of  children  at  high  schools  or  academies  in  other 
towns  where  the  town  of  residence  has  not  provided  a  high 
school;  (20)  to  appoint  truant  officers;.  (21)  to  issue  age  and 
employment  certificates  under  the  compulsory  attendance  law; 

(22)  at  discretion  to  establish  and  maintain  open-air  schools; 

(23)  at  discretion  to  appoint  school  physicians  and  provide 
medical  inspection  for  public  and  private  schools;    and  (24) 
to  provide  public  dental  clinics  for  pupils  needing  dental  treat- 
ment. 

The  last  three  powers  may  stand  as  examples  of  the  permissive 
form  of  school  legislation  in  Rhode  Island,  usually  the  forerunner 
of  mandatory  statutes.  Of  similar  origin  was  the  mandatory 
statute  compelling  the  appointment  of  a  superintendent  of 


432  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

schools,  and  the  statute  requiring  towns  to  provide  high  schools 
or  pay  tuition  for  pupils  at  high  schools  or  academies  in  other 
towns  was  first  permissive  in  form.  First  made  an  obligation 
of  the  town  in  1878,  the  taking  of  the  school  census  became  a 
duty  of  the  school  committee  in  1900.  The  law  of  1883  per- 
mitting towns  to  appoint  truant  officers  was  made  compulsory 
by  penalty  in  1887;  in  1901  the  power  and  duty  to  appoint 
truant  officers  passed  to  the  school  committee.  The  changes 
affecting  the  school  census  and  truant  officers  both  aimed  at 
greater  efficiency,  and  both  were  consistent  with  the  principle 
of  centralizing  school  authority  in  the  school  committee.  The 
strongest  influences  restraining  the  school  committee  are  the 
quasi-referendum  incidental  to  re-election,  and  the  amount  of 
school  money  placed  at  the  committee's  disposal  by  the  town. 
The  school  money  distributed  annually  by  the  state,  the  annual 
appropriation  required  of  the  town,  poll  taxes,  dog  taxes  and 
certain  fines  are  at  the  committee's  disposal;  beyond  these  the 
committee  must  look  for  funds  to  the  town  meeting  or  the  city 
council.  Hence  it  is  a  paramount  duty  of  the  school  committee 
so  to  conduct  the  schools  of  the  town  that  they  shall  maintain 
a  public  consciousness  of  the  town's  obligation  to  the  children 
of  the  town,  as  well  as  stimulate  a  public  pride — that  wholly 
meritorious  pride  which  arises  from  the  feeling  that  a  public 
function  is  being  exercised  well.  Spiritual  values  there  are  in 
schools  quite  as  important  as  those  which  are  purely  intellectual, 
useful  and  efficient.  Membership  in  a  school  committee  offers 
a  splendid  opportunity  for  public  service  of  the  highest  type. 

THE  STATE  DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATION. 

It  is  not  necessary  at  this  point  to  trace  again  in  detail  the 
history  of  the  changing  fortunes  of  the  state  department  of 
education.*  A  suggestive  outline  recalls  state  aid  for  public 
schools  without  a  central  school  organization  from  1828  to 

*See  chapters  4  and  5. 


SCHOOL    ADMINISTRATION.  433 

1845;  the  brilliant  prestige  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
established  by  Barnard  and  so  well  maintained  by  Potter;  a 
period  of  declining  influence  and  of  arrested  progress  under 
Allyn,  Kingsbury,  Rousmaniere  and  Chapin;  revival  through 
the  impetuous,  restless  vigor  of  Bicknell;  renaissance  in  the 
creation  of  the  State  Board  of  Education;  steady  progress 
toward  perfection  of  the  ideal  of  universal  free  public  education 
under  the  leadership  of  Stockwell ;  and  extension  and  improve- 
ment through  the  combined  efforts  of  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  the  two  Commissioners  of  Public  Schools  of  the  modern 
period — Stockwell  and  Ranger.  The  outline  emphasizes  person- 
ality. Personality  is  the  dynamic  influence  in  school  adminis- 
tration, for  which  law  supplies  the  mechanics.  So  potential  is 
personality  in  determining  the  efficiency  of  school  administra- 
tion that  it  may  not  be  ignored  in  writing  narrative  school 
history.  This  chapter  deals  with  the  machinery  of  school 
administration,  that  is,  with  the  school  law. 

Early  Powers  of  Commissioner. — The  Barnard  act  created  the 
office  of  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  and  authorized,  em- 
powered and  obligated  the  Commissioner  (1)  to  apportion  state 
aid  to  towns  maintaining  public  schools,  (2)  to  adjust  and 
decide  disputes  arising  under  the  school  law,  (3)  to  visit  and 
inspect  schools,  and  to  suggest  and  recommend  improvement, 
(4)  to  promote  uniformity  of  textbooks,  (5)  to  assist  in  the  or- 
ganization of  public  libraries,  (6)  to  establish  teachers'  institutes 
and  a  normal  school,  (7)  to  issue  teachers'  certificates,  (8)  to 
appoint  county  inspectors,  (9)  to  prepare  forms  for  and  to 
require  reports  from  town  school  committees,  and  (10)  to  report 
annually  to  the  General  Assembly.  The  power  to  establish  a 
normal  school  was  ineffective  for  want  of  an  appropriation. 
The  power  to  appoint  county  inspectors,  forecasting  perhaps  a 
system  of  school  superintendence  by  state  officers,  was  pre- 
destined to  failure  because  no  provision  was  made  for  salaries. 
Teachers  failed  to  appreciate  the  professional  dignity  of  higher 


434  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

certification,  and  the  power  to  examine  teachers  and  issue  cer- 
tificates practically  lapsed  through  disuse,  a  result  accelerated 
no  doubt  by  the  town  school  committee's  jealous  maintenance 
of  its  own  right  to  examine  teachers.  The  powers  to  recom- 
mend school  improvement  after  visit  and  inspection  had  dis- 
closed faults,  to  promote  uniformity  of  textbooks,  to  establish 
teachers'  institutes  and  to  assist  public  libraries  were  hortative 
rather  than  effective.  The  influence  that  usually  attaches 
to  the  power  to  apportion  money  was  wanting  because  the 
Commissioner's  function  was  ministerial.  He  was  a  pay- 
master, bound  by  a  scale  established  by  law.  He  might  with- 
hold public  money  only  when  a  town  failed  to  maintain  a  school 
or  to  report;  he  must  pay  if  the  town  reported  having  kept  a 
school — whatever  the  quality.  As  a  superior  school  officer  his 
most  effective  power  rested  on  his  judicial  authority  as  an 
adjuster  of  differences;  beyond  that  he  must  exert  influence 
through  persuasion  or  through  appeal  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly for  legislation.  Yet,  in  spite  of  its  many  almost  pa- 
thetic weaknesses,  the  Barnard  law  did  in  fact  establish  a 
state  department  of  education,  a  system  of  comprehensive 
school  reports,  and  a  state  officer  one  of  whose  functions,  as 
an  educational  expert,  was  the  interpretation  of  these  reports 
for  the  General  Assembly.  Perhaps  it  was  better,  in  individual- 
istic Rhode  Island,  that  the  state  department  of  education 
should  acquire  an  accession  of  power  from  small  beginnings 
gradually,  than  that  completion  should  rest  upon  the  fiat  of  a 
single  act  of  the  General  Assembly. 

A  Law  Written  for  a  Man. — The  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  under  the  Barnard  Act,  was  a  paymaster-statistician- 
judge  in  the  exercise  of  his  effective  powers;  beyond  these,  he 
was  a  dynamic  agent  for  school  improvement.  Henry  Barnard 
had  written  a  statute  creating  an  office  which  he  was  admirably 
fitted  to  occupy.  He  had  performed  a  task  much  like  that  of  a 
playwright  building  a  drama  about  and  around  the  personality 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  435 

of  a  great  actor.  The  art  of  the  actor  in  the  setting  which  the 
playwright  creates  for  him  is  perfect  because  it  is  natural;  the 
player  is  himself.  The  work  of  the  playwright  is  perfect  in  so 
far  as  it  imposes  no  restriction  upon  the  individuality  of  the 
player  in  the  principal  role\  This  is  the  finesse  of  subordination 
that  has  become  co-ordination.  An  understudy  whose  feet 
barely  reach  the  boards  in  his  mimicry  of  the  great  actor,  some- 
times directs  the  analysis  of  criticism  to  the  play  itself,  and  the 
distinction  between  the  eternal  and  the  ephemeral  dawns.  The 
critic  reaches  the  threshold  of  a  viewpoint  from  which  the  works 
of  Shakespeare,  Sheridan,  Goldsmith  and  Pinero,  writing  for  the 
actors  of  all  time,  range  in  proper  perspective  with  vehicles 
constructed  for  a  single  performer's  expression  of  his  idiosyn- 
crasies. The  Barnard  act  was  written  by  Henry  Barnard  for 
Henry  Barnard.  It  was  the  work  of  a  schoolman  rather  than 
a  jurist;  for,  though  he  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Con- 
necticut, Henry  Barnard  had  not  become  a  great  lawyer. 
Elisha  R.  Potter's  redrafting  of  the  Barnard  law  gave  it  legal 
diction  and  legal  form,  where  it  had  smacked  of  amateur  crafts- 
manship. 

The  powers  entrusted  to  the  Commissioner  were  not  sufficient 
to  attract  a  strong  man  to  the  office.  Yet,  partly  because  the 
men  who  succeeded  Henry  Barnard  possessed  many  of  his 
excellent  qualities,  and  partly  because  the  people  of  Rhode 
Island  realized  the  importance  of  school  improvement  and  were 
generous  in  then-  support  of  schools,  educational  progress  was 
continuous,  although  not  at  an  evenly  maintained  rate.  A 
thoroughly  incompetent  Commissioner  might  have  permitted 
retroaction;  a  recalcitrant  town,  persistent  in  its  refusal  to 
measure  up  to  standards,  might  have  broken  down  the  system. 
There  were  times  when  the  public  schools  seemed  to  mark  time 
rather  than  to  advance.  But  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  progress,  • 
though  sometimes  arrested,  never  completely  stopped,  and  that 
the  judicial  decision  which  disclosed  the  weakness  of  a  system 


436  PUBLIC    EDUCATION    IN    EHODE    ISLAND. 

of  schools  built  upon  a  permissive  rather  than  a  mandatory 
statute  (Wixon  vs.  Newport,  13  R.  I.  454)  involved  litigation 
of  other  than  a  school  question.  No  Rhode  Island  town  was  so 
completely  unresponsive  to  persuasion  that  compulsion  must 
be  invoked.  The  Barnard  law  was  enforced,  it  might  be  said, 
by  mutual  consent;  and  there  was  no  resistance  when  the 
school  law  became  mandatory  in  1882. 

There  were  three  ways  of  strengthening  the  hands  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  as  an  executive-administrator. 
First,  increasing  the  number  of  his  powers;  second,  improving 
the  quality  of  his  powers  by  making  them  effective  rather  than 
hortative,  persuasive  and  ministerial;  third,  strengthening  the 
authority  of  his  persuasion  by  creating  a  representative  board 
or  council  for  which  he  should  act  in  his  capacity  as  dynamic 
agent,  and  which  should  assume  responsibility  in  matters  of 
policy.  What  Henry  Barnard's  solution  of  the  problem  might 
be  is  matter  for  conjecture.  Illness  compelled  him  to  resign 
before  the  improvement  which  he  stimulated  had  spent  itself. 
That  the  Commissioner's  powers  were  neither  increased  in 
number  nor  improved  in  quality  in  1851  was  due,  probably, 
to  the  influence  of  Commissioner  Potter,  who  was  a  strong 
exponent  of  Rhode  Island  individualism.  Commissioner  Potter 
did  suggest  the  third  expedient,  and  presented  to  the  General 
Assembly  in  1855  a  bill  creating  a  board  of  education,  which, 
however,  failed  of  enactment.  Subsequent  Commissioners  were 
either  satisfied  with  the  law  as  they  found  it,  or  wielded  too  little 
influence  in  the  General  Assembly  to  induce  a  change,  until 
Commissioner  Bicknell  grasped  a  great  opportunity  to  recom- 
mend the  creation  of  a  board  of  education,  and  the  General 
Assembly  responded  favorably  in  1870. 

.  Board  of  Education  Created,  1870. — The  Board  of  Education 
was  given  "general  supervision  and  control  of  the  public 
schools  .  .  .  with  such  high  schools,  normal  schools  and 
normal  institutes  as  are  or  may  be  established  and  maintained 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  437 

wholly  or  in  part  by  the  state."  Its  early  powers  were  prin- 
cipally advisory,  however,  except  that  it  elected  the  Com- 
missi6ner  of  Public  Schools,  who  became  ex-officio  secretary  of 
the  Board,  and  that  it  reported  to  the  General  Assembly,  the 
Commissioner  thereafter  reporting  to  the  Board.  The  powers 
of  the  State  Board  of  Education  in  the  order  of  their  creation 
are: 

1 .  To  maintain  general  supervision  and  control  of  the  public 
schools  of  the  state.     1870. 

2.  To  prescribe  and  cause  to  be  enforced  all  rules  and 
regulations  necessary  for  carrying  into  effect  the  laws  in  relation 
to  public  schools.     1870. 

3.  To  report  annually  to  the  General  Assembly.     1870. 

4.  With  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  to  manage  the 
Rhode.  Island  Normal  School  as  a  board  of  trustees,  admit 
students  thereto  and  pay  the  travelling  expenses  of  students. 
1871. 

5.  To  elect  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.     1872. 

6.  To  apportion  to  the  several  towns  the  state's  annual 
appropriation  for  evening  schools.     1873. 

7.  To  apportion  state  aid  to  free  public  libraries,  approve 
books  to  be  counted  in  establishing  a  basis  for  aid,  and  rules 
for  public  libraries  to  insure  use  thereof  to  the  public,  con- 
venient and  free  of  charge.     1875. 

8.  To  supervise  payment  of  state  aid  to  the  Rhode  Island 
School  of  Design,  to  appoint  two  of  its  members  to  be  members 
of  the  board  of  directors  thereoi,  and  to  appoint  state  bene- 
ficiaries of  free  scholarships.     1882-1884. 

9.  To  register  private  schools,  to  furnish  school  registers  for 
private  schools,  to  require  and  receive  reports  from  private 
schools,  to  visit  and  inspect  private  schools.     1892. 

10.  To  receive  annual  reports  from  all  educational  institu- 
tions supported  wholly  or  in  part  by  the  state.     1892. 

11.  To  supervise  the  education  of  deaf,  blind  and  imbecile 
children  of  school  age.     1892. 

12.  To  examine  teachers  and  issue  certificates  of  qualifica- 
tion and  eligibility  to  teach.     1898. 

13.  To  approve  courses  of  study  in  high  schools  and  stand- 
ards for  high  schools  as  conditions  precedent  to  paying  state 
aid  to  high  schools.     1898. 

14.  To  certificate  school  superintendents.     1908. 

15.  To  administer  the  teachers'  pension  law.     1909. 


438  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

16.  To  present  a  financial  report  annually  to  the  State 
Auditor.     1910. 

17.  To  establish  and  aid  travelling  libraries  and  pi;ovide 
for  visitation  and  examination  of  free  public  libraries.     1911. 

18.  To  provide  for  the  education  of  adult  blind  persons  in 
their  homes.     1911. 

19.  To  approve  standards  of  lighting,  heating,  ventilating, 
seating  and  other  sanitary  arrangements  for  school  buildings, 
and  proper  regulations  concerning  the  same,  and  communicate 
them  to  town  authorities.     1911. 

20.  To  apportion  state  aid  to  towns  providing  medical 
inspection  for  public  and  private  schools.     1911. 

21.  To  establish  post-graduate  courses  in  education  in  co- 
operation with  the  corporation  of  Brown  University,  and  to 
appoint  beneficiaries  to   state  scholarships  in  such  courses. 
1912. 

22.  To  apportion  state  aid  to  towns  establishing  instruction 
in  manual  training  and  household  arts  and  courses  in  vocational 
industrial  education.     1913. 

23.  To  provide  for  the  care  and  maintenance  of  children 
under  school  age  who  are  born  blind  or  become  blind.     1913. 

24.  To  apportion  state  aid,  upon  recommendation  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  to  towns  whose  taxable  prop- 
erty is  not  sufficient  at  the  average  rate  of  taxation  throughout 
the  state  to  provide  public  schools  of  high  standard.     1913. 

25.  To  provide,   in  co-operation  with  town  school  com- 
mittees, professional  school  supervision  for  towns  which  had 
not  previous  to  1915  availed  themselves  of  the  law  providing 
state  aid  for  supervision.     1915. 

26.  To  provide  badges  for  youthful  street  venders  in  cities 
with  more  than  70,000  population.     1915. 

27.  To  appoint  state  scholars  at  the  Rhode  Island  College 
of  Pharmacy.     1916. 

28.  To  administer  the  law  for  physical  education  and  prepare 
a  syllabus.     1917. 

29.  To  serve  as  a  State  Board  for  Vocational  Education, 
under  the  Federal  Act  for  the  promotion  of  Vocational  Educa- 
tion, passed  by    Congress  and  approved  by   the    President, 
April  23,  1917. 

Powers  of  the  State  Board  of  Education. — A  grouping  of  the 
powers  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  based  upon  a  classifi- 
cation as  to  subject  matter  affords  a  better  means  of  measuring 
the  efficiency  of  the  Board's  functions  within  the  jurisdiction 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  439 

assigned  to  it  than  a  recital  in  the  chronological  order  of  creation. 
In  the  grouping  which  follows  it  will  be  noted  that  the  Board's 
functions  are  generally  effective,  and  that  in  apportioning  money 
the  Board's  function  is  executive  and  discretionary;  as  a  rule, 
it  may  insist  upon  standards  and  withhold  money  unless  the 
conditions  prescribed  by  the  Board  are  complied  with : 

I.     Schools. 

1.  Public  Schools.    The  board  maintains  general  supervision 

and  control,  and  may  establish  rules  and  regula- 
tions necessary  for  carrying  into  effect  the  laws  in 
relation  to  public  schools. 

a.  Evening   Schools.    The   board   apportions,    at  dis- 

cretion, an  annual  appropriation  for  the  support  of 
evening  schools. 

b.  High  Schools.    The  board's  approval  of  courses  of 

study,  and  approximation  to  standards  estab- 
lished by  the  board  are  conditions  precedent  to 
drawing  state  money  appropriated  to  aid  high 
schools.  Towns  are  required  to  maintain  high 
schools  or  provide  high  school  education. 

c.  Special  Aid.    The  board,  at  discretion,  on  recom- 

mendation of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools, 
apportions  an  annual  appropriation  to  assist  towns 
unable,  at  the  average  rate  of  taxation  throughout 
the  state,  to  maintain  schools  of  high  standard. 

d.  Vocational  and  Industrial.    The  board  apportions 

•  a  state  appropriation  for  the  support  of  courses 
which  it  approves;  and  also  apportions  Federal 
aid  for  vocational  education. 

e.  Medical  Inspection  and  Sanitation.     The  board  ap- 

portions an  appropriation  for  medical  inspection, 
and  may  establish  (but  not  enforce)  standards  for 
lighting,  heating,  ventilating,  seating  and  sanita- 
tion in  school  buildings. 

f .  Supervision.    The  board,  in  co-operation  with  school 

committees,  may  provide  professional  supervision 
for  towns  not  drawing  state  aid  for  supervision 
previous  to  1915. 

2.  Private  Schools.    The  board  registers  and  requires  reports 

from  private  schools,  and  has  the  right  to  visit  and 
inspect  them.  The  approval  of  private  schools  for 
purposes  of  attendance  in  lieu  of  attendance  at 
public  schools,  rests  with  town  school  committees. 


440  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

II.  Teachers  and  Supervision. 

1.  Education  of  Teachers. 

a.  The  Board  and  Commissioner,  as  a  board  of  trustees, 

conduct  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School. 

b.  The  Board  maintains  post-graduate  courses  in  educa- 

tion at  Brown  University  and  appoints  benefi- 
ciaries to  free  state  scholarships  in  the  department. 

c.  Improvement   of   Teachers   in   Service.     Extension 

courses  at  Normal  School,  post-graduate  courses 
at  Brown  University,  teachers'  courses  at  School 
of  Design. 

2.  Examination  and  Certification.     The  board  examines  and 

licenses  all  public  school  teachers  and  superin- 
tendents employed  in  the  state. 

3.  Teachers'  Pensions.     The  board  administers  the  pension 

law. 

III.  Institutions. 

1.  Normal  School.     The  Board  and  Commissioner  are  the 

Board  of  Trustees. 

2.  School  of  Design.     Two  members  of  Board  of  Education 

serve  as  members  of  the  board  of  directors. 

3.  Other    Institutions.     All    educational    institutions   sup- 

ported wholly  or  in  part  by  state  appropriations, 
report  annually  to  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

IV.  Industrial  and  Vocational  Education. 

1.  In  Public  Schools.     The  board  apportions  a  state  appro- 

priation and  Federal  aid  for  vocational  courses. 

2.  School  of  Design.     Besides  participating  in  the  man- 

agement, the  board  supervises  the  payment  of 
state  appropriations  for  support,  and  appoints  to 
free  state  scholarships.  The  textile  department 
is  supported  principally  by  the  state. 

3.  Rhode  Island  College  of  Pharmacy.    Scholarships  and 

reports. 

4.  See  Education  of  Teachers. 

V.  Education  of  Defective  Classes. 

1 .     The  Board  of  Education  supervises  the  education  of  deaf, 
blind  and  imbecile  children  of  school  age. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  441 

a.  Deaf.     The   R.    I.    Institute   for   the   Deaf,   under 

management  of  another  board,  reports  to  the 
State  Board  of  Education. 

b.  Blind.     The  State  Board  of  Education  supervises 

and  provides  education  for  blind  children  of  school 
age,  generally  by  appointment  as  beneficiaries  at 
institutions  for  the  blind.  For  indigent  children 
under  school  age,  born  blind  or  becoming  blind, 
the  board  may  provide  care  and  maintenance. 
For  the  adult  blind  the  board  provides  education 
in  their  homes. 

c.  Other  state  institutions  maintaining  schools  report  to 

the  board. 

VI.  Free  Public  Libraries. 

1.  State  Aid.     The  board  apportions  state  aid  for  free  public 

libraries,  based  upon  the  number  oi  books  in  each 
library  approved  by  the  board,  and  also  prescribes 
rules  and  regulations  intended  to  secure  free  use 
of  books  to  public. 

2.  Travelling  Libraries.     The  board  maintains   and   aids 

travelling  free  public  libraries. 

3.  Library  Visitor.     The  board  employs  a  library  visitor,  to 

visit  and  inspect  free  public  libraries. 

VII.  Reports. 

1.  The  board  receives  reports  from — 

a.  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

b.  Private  schools. 

c.  All  educational  institutions  supported  wholly  or  in 

part  by  public  money. 

2.  The  board  reports  to — 

a.  The  General  Assembly. 

b.  The  State  Auditor. 

VIII.  The  board  elects  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

THE  COMMISSIONER  OF  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

The  purpose  of  creating  the  State  Board  of  Education  seems 
to  have  been,  in  the  first  instance,  the  provision  of  moral  force 
to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
in  the  exercise  of  his  advisory  functions.  Certain  powers  of  the 
Commissioner  were  transferred  by  subsequent  legislation  to  the 


442  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

State  Board  of  Education,  notably  the  powers  to  establish  a 
normal  school  and  to  certificate  teachers.     While  the  Commis- 
sioner retained  the  power  to  assist  public  libraries  by  advice, 
t 

the  Board  acquired  the  greater  power  to  regulate  public  libraries 
and  aid  them  with  money.  The  power  to  appoint  county 
inspectors  was  abolished,  and  the  Commissioner  was  removed 
from  direct  contact  with  the  General  Assembly  through  the 
direction  of  his  annual  report  to  the  Board  instead  of  to  the 
Assembly.  The  Commissioner  became  secretary  of  the  Board, 
and  was  associated  with  it  as  one  of  the  members  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  Normal  School.  In  the  48  years  since  1870 
the  State  Board  of  Education  has  accumulated  the  imposing 
array  of  powers  and  functions  already  enumerated.  What  has 
become  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  meanwhile? 
is  the  question  naturally  suggested.  Has  the  paymaster- 
statistician-judge  and  dynamic  agent  of  the  quarter-century 
from  1845  to  1870  become  merely  an  executive  secretary  for  the 
State  Board  of  Education?  As  such  his  influence  would  be 
extensive  and  impressive.  But  the  General  Assembly,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  widened  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  Board 
of  Education  has  increased  the  powers  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools.  The  powers  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  in  the  order  of  their  creation  are  as  follows : 

1 .  To  visit  as  often  as  practicable  every  town  in  the  state,  for 
the  purpose  of  inspecting  the  schools  and  diffusing  as  widely 
as  possible  by  public  addresses  and  personal  communication 
with  school  officers,  teachers  and  parents  a  knowledge  of  the 
defects,  and  of  desirable  improvements  in  the  administration 
of  the  system  and  the  government  and  instruction  of  the  schools. 
1845. 

2.  To  recommend  and  bring  about  as  far  as  is  practicable  a 
uniformity  of  textbooks  in  the  schools  of  all  the  towns.     1845. 

3.  To  apportion  the  state's  appropriation  of  teachers'  money. 
1845.     The  amount  of  the  appropriation  has  been  increased 
from  $25,000  to  $120,000. 

4.  To  provide  teachers'  institutes.     1845. 

5.  To  assist  in  the  establishment  and  selection  of  books  for 
free  public  libraries.     1845. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  443 

6.  To  furnish  blanks  for  annual  reports  required  from  school 
committees.     1845. 

7.  To  hear  and  decide  appeals  in  disputes  arising  under  the 
school  law.     1845. 

8.  To  supervise  the  public  schools  generally.     1845. 

9.  To  direct  courses  of  study,  prescribed  by  town  school 
committees.     1845. 

10.  To  provide  lectures  on  educational  topics,  to  publish  and 
distribute  educational,  publications,  and  to  promote  the  cause 
of  education  in  the  state.     1845. 

11.  To  provide  registers  for  public  schools.     1846. 

12.  To  remit  fines  and  penalties,  1846.     Except  state  money 
forfeited  by  failure  of  a  town  to  raise  its  quota  of  school  money. 
1848.     By  and  with  the  consent  of  the  State  Board  of  Education 
after  1874. 

13.  To  report  to  the  State  Treasurer  forfeitures  of  state 
school  money.     1848.  • 

14.  To  serve  ex-officio  as  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education.     1870. 

15.  To  report  annually  to  the  State  Board  of  Education. 
1870. 

16.  To  serve  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Normal  School.     1871. 

17.  To  draw  orders,  approved  by  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, for  payment  of  state  aid  to  free  public  libraries.     1875. 

18.  To  provide  blanks  for  taking  the  school  census.     1878. 

19.  To  apportion  to  towns  state  aid  for  the  purchase  of 
dictionaries,    encyclopaedias,    reference   works,    maps,    charts, 
globes  and  other  school  apparatus.     1880. 

20.  To  prepare  and  distribute  a  printed  programme  for 
Arbor  Day.     1891. 

21.  To  approve  applications  for  state  aid  for  high  schools 
and  to  towns  consolidating  ungraded  schools  and  establishing 
in  their  stead  graded  schools.     1898. 

22.  To  prepare  and  distribute  a  printed  programme  for 
Grand  Army  Flag  Day.     1901. 

23.  To  apportion  state  aid  for  the  payment  of  salaries  of 
superintendents  of  schools.     1903. 

24.  To  enforce  the  teachers'  certificate  law  by  withholding 
state  aid  when  towns  hire  teachers  without  certificates.     1903. 

25.  To  prepare  and  distribute  a  printed  programme  for 
Rhode  Island  Independence  Day.     1908. 

26.  To  serve  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the 
Rhode  Island  State  College.     1909. 


444  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

27.  To  report  annually  to  the  State  Auditor  a  complete 
statement  of  bills  and  accounts  incurred,  due  and  remaining 
unpaid,  and  a  statement  of  unexpended  balances  of  school 
appropriations.     1910. 

28.  To  appoint  an  Assistant  Commissioner.     1910. 

29.  To  furnish  test  cards,  appliances,  record  books  and 
rules  for  conducting  sight  and  hearing  tests.     1911. 

30.  To  formulate  a  uniform  code  for  fire  drills.     1912. 

31.  To  determine,  under  the  age  and  employment  certificate 
law,  what  evidence  of  a  child's  age  shall  be  received  when  the 
birth  or  baptismal  certificate  or  passport  of  the  child  cannot  be 
found.     1913. 

32.  To  recommend  to  the  State  Board  of  Education  an 
apportionment  of  the  appropriation  for  special  aid.     1913. 

33.  To   appoint   two   physicians   in   Providence   to   make 
examinations  of  children  who  apply  for  age  and  employment 
certificates.     1915. 

34.  To  visit  schools  conducted  in  institutions  under  the  care 
of  the  Penal  and  Charitable  Commission,  and  to  make  recom- 
mendations for  their  conduct  and  improvement.     1917. 

35.  '  To  furnish  blanks  for  dental  inspection.     1917. 

36.  To  serve  as  State  Director  of  Vocational  Education. 
1918. 

The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  is  still  a  paymaster; 
he  apportions,  generally  by  ratios  fixed  by  law,  four  annual 
appropriations,  which  aggregate  in  excess  of  $170,000.  He  is 
still  a  statistician  and  a  judge;  the  latter  function  is  of  far 
greater  importance  than  the  number  of  appeals  actually  heard 
and  decided  indicates,  now  that  the  abolition  of  the  district 
system  has  swept  away  one  field  for  prolific  discord.  His  advice 
is  sought  frequently  in  advance  of  decisive  action  which  might 
be  made  the  basis  of  litigation,  and  he  is  able  through  diplomatic 
negotiation  sometimes  to  guide  those  on  the  verge  of  dispute 
to  a  peaceful  solution  of  a  vexing  problem.  His  appellate 
jurisdiction  lends  force  to  his  counsel,  as  it  makes  him  also  a 
recognized  arbitrator  and  conciliator. 

On  the  dynamic  side,  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  is 
still  a  school  visitor,  an  adviser  of  school  authorities,  a  counsellor 
of  teachers,  the  prime  mover  in  teachers'  institutes,  a  publisher 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION,  445 

of  educational  documents  and  printed  programmes  for  days  of 
special  school  observance.  He  has  become  an  important  factor 
in  the  administration  of  the  school  interest  in  the  age  and  em- 
ployment certificate  law.  He  holds  four  offices  by  virtue  of 
being  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools:  He  is  Secretary  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education,  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  •  for 
Vocational  Education,  a  Trustee  of  the  Rhode  Island  Normal 
School,  and  one  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Rhode  Island 
State  College.  He  is  also  the  state's  recognized  representative 
in  interstate  educational  relations. 

Some  notion  of  the  activities  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  may  be  gleaned  from  a  list  of  the  twenty-five  divisions 
of  service  in  his  office:  1.  General  supervision  and  control  of 
public  schools,  rules  for  instruction  and  government  of  schools, 
courses  of  study,  etc.  2.  Division  of  accounts.  3.  Reports 
and  recommendations.  4.  Special  reports.  5.  Training  of 
teachers;  Normal  School.  6.  Certification  of  teachers  and 
superintendents.  7.  Teachers'  institutes.  8.  Teachers'  pen- 
sions. 9.  Public  libraries.  10.  Travelling  libraries.  11.  State 
free  scholarships.  12.  Education  of  blind  children.  13.  Edu- 
cation of  adult  blind.  14.  Relations  of  state  with  private  in- 
stitutions of  learning.  15.  Publications.  16.  Appeals.  17. 
Registers,  blanks,  supplies,  etc.  18.  Apportionment  of  appro- 
priations. 19.  Board  meetings,  conferences  and  addresses. 
20.  Interstate  relations.  21.  Age  and  employment  certifi- 
cates. 22.  Visitation  of  schools.  23.  General  correspondence. 
24.  Vocational  education.  25.  Miscellaneous. 

The  Unwritten  Law. — An  analysis  of  the  powers  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools  which  ventures  not  beyond  the  literal 
provisions  of  the  statutes. and  a  liberal  interpretation  of  these 
fails  to  disclose  a  function  belonging  to  the  Commissioner  which 
is  perhaps  paramount  to  his  authority  by  reason  of  the 
written  law.  This  undisclosed  function  lies  in  his  relation 
to  the  State  Board  of  Education.  In  his  capacity  as  executive 


446  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

agent  for  the  State  Board  of  Education  he  wields  extensive  and 
effective  authority,  but  no  careful  student  of  the  school  law 
familiar  with  the  legal  notion  of  principal  and  agent,  need  be 
deceived  nor  hesitate 'to  distinguish  the  powers  which  are 
actually  the  Commissioner's,  and  those  which  are  delegated  to 
him,  in  the  exercise  of  .the  latter  of  which  his  function  is  truly 
ministerial.  He  is  elected  annually  by  the  Board  of  Education 
and  serves  ex-officio  as  its  secretary;  this  transcript  of  the 
statutes  does  not  paraphrase  his  most  important  relation  to  the 
Board  of  Education  and  to  the  public  school  system  of  the  state, 
however.  History  furnishes  a  key  to  the  situation  as  it  is. 
Rhode  Island  has  never  ceased  to  regard  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools  as  the  successor  of  Henry  Barnard;  the  Com- 
nissioner  is  still  the  state's  educational  leader  and  expert. 
Forty-eight  years  ago  the  General  Assembly  created  the  State 
Board  of  Education  mainly  to  strengthen  the  position  of  the 
Commissioner.  In  the  years  which  have  followed  the  Board 
has  been  entrusted  with  vast  powers  in  an  extensive  jurisdiction, 
but  the  traditional  relation  of  the  Board  and  the  Commissioner 
has  never  been  altered.  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools 
is  the  expert  adviser  of  the  State  Board  of  Education.  The 
Board  looks  to  him  for  leadership;  he  looks  to  the  Board  for 
support.  No  Commissioner  whose  counsel  was  persistently 
disregarded  would  remain  in  office;  no  Board  would  re-elect  a 
Commissioner  whose  leadership  it  could  not  follow.  Legal 
language  fails  to  describe  adequately  the  delicacy  of  this  relation 
of  the  Board  and  the  Commissioner.  No  General  Assembly 
has  ever  attempted  to  phrase  it  and  write  it  into  the  statutes. 
Yet  the  student  of  administration  in  Rhode  Island  who  fails  to 
discover  this  relation  has  missed  a  function  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools  which  is  of  almost  transcendental  importance. 
As  a  consequence  of  this  relation  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  formulates  and  the  Board  of  Education  voices  a  large 
part  of  the  educational  policy  of  the  state.  It  raises  the  Com- 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  447 

missioner  of  Public  Schools  to  an  official  dignity  impossible  were 
he  merely  a  secretary  and  a  ministerial  functionary. 

A  STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

Until  1882  it  might  be  said,  accurately,  that  the  public  schools 
of  Rhode  Island  were  town  schools.  In  spite  of  the  facts  (1)  that 
towns  and  cities  derived  their  power  to  levy  taxes  for  school 
support  from  the  general  laws  of  the  state,  (2)  that  school  com- 
mittees were  elected  under  general  laws,  derived  their  powers 
from  the  statutes  and  were  independent  of  control  by  town 
governments,  (3)  that  schools  were  aided  by  state  appropria- 
tions distributed  pro  rata,  as  well  as  by  town  taxation,  (4)  that 
certain  revenues  of  the  towns,  derived  from  poll  taxes,  dogr 
taxes  and  fines,  could,  under  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  be 
applied  to  no  other  purpose  than  school  support,  (5)  that  the 
town  school  administrative  organization  was  prescribed  by 
statute  and  did  not  vary  radically  from  town  to  town,  (6)  that 
the  town  schools  were  fundamentally  uniform  in  type,  though 
varying  somewhat  in  detail  and  quality,  (7)  that  town  schools 
were  subject  to  state  supervision'  and  inspection,  (8)  that  the 
state  had  provided  a  normal  school  for  the  training  of  teachers, 
(9)  that  courses  of  study  were  subject  to  approval  by  the  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Schools,  and  (10)  that  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools  was  by  statute  a  judicial  officer  for  the  adjust- 
ment of  disputes  arising  under  the  school  law — the  mainte- 
nance of  schools  and  the  appropriation  of  money  for  school 
support  were  permissive  rather  than  mandatory.  The  Supreme 
Court,  in  1881,  declared:  "The  statutes  of  the  state  relating 
to  free  public  schools  do  not  make  it  the  imperative  duty  of  the 
several  towns  and  cities  to  establish  and  maintain  such  schools, 
but  create  a  general  school  system,  under  which  the  several 
towns  and  cities  voluntarily  establish  and  maintain  public 
schools,  receiving  from  the  state  certain  allotments  of  money 
to  help  defray  the  cost  of  instruction."*  Conscious  of  its 

*  Wixon  vs.  Newport,  13  R.  I.  454. 


448  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

obligation  to  education,  the  state  was  encouraging  towns  to 
establish  schools,  by  annual  appropriations  to  aid  the  towns. 
In  1882  the  word  shall  replaced  the  word  may  in  the  statutes, 
and  the  school  law  became  mandatory.  Thereafter  the  school 
system  might  be  regarded  as  a  state  system,  instead  of  a  town 
system — in  which  the  towns  became  agents  for  the  state  in 
establishing  and  maintaining  the  schools  which  the  state  had 
decreed  should  be  open  to  all  its  citizens;  in  which  town  taxa- 
tion for  school  support  was  a  device  for  adjusting  a  public 
burden  amongst  the  people  of  the  state;  in  which  the  towns 
became  trustees  of  public  school  property.  Later  school 
statutes  have  strengthened  the  state  view;  among  the  most 
important  of  these  have  been  the  compulsory  attendance  laws 
and  the  attempts  to  perfect  them,  the  free  textbook  law  of  1893, 
the  law  of  1896  placing  Providence  schools  under  the  general 
school  law,  the  teachers'  certificate  law  of  1898,  the  mandatory 
high  school  law  of  1909,  the  teachers'  minimum  salary  law  of 
1909,  and  the  act  of  1913  providing  special  assistance  for  towns 
unable,  at  the  prevailing  rate'  of  taxation  throughout  the  state, 
to  maintain  schools  of  high  grade.  Twelve  factors  that 
establish  the  accuracy  of  the  state  view  are:  (1)  Mandatory 
maintenance,  (2)  compulsory  attendance,  (3)  special  state 
assistance,  (4)  state  licensing  or  certification  of  teachers,  (5) 
state  education  for  teachers,  (6)  minimum  salary  for  teachers, 
(7)  minimum  school  year,  (8)  mandatory  provision  for  high 
school  education,  (9)  prescription  of  part  and  direction  of  the 
remainder  of  the  course  of  study,  (10)  free  textbooks,  (11)  state 
supervision  through  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and 
the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  (12)  the  judicial  authority 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.  The  state  school  sys- 
tem centres  in  the  state  department  of  education,  that  is,  in  the 
State  Board  of  Education  and  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools,  who  is  ex-officio  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  its  chief  executive  agent. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  449 

The  State  Schools. — The  Rhode  Island  State  system  of  schools 
consists  of: 

1.  Free  public  primary  and  elementary  schools,  established 
and  maintained  by  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  state  under 
mandatory  statutes,  and  partly  supported  by  state  appropria- 
tions. 

Attendance  is  compulsory  until  the  course  of  eight  grades  is 
completed  or  until  the  pupil  has  completed  16  years  of  life,  or 
having  completed  14  years  of  life,  is  regularly  employed  and 
otherwise  complies  with  the  provisions  of  the  age  and  employ- 
ment certificate  law.  Instead  of  attending  a  public  school  a 
child  may  be  instructed  privately  or  sent  to  a  private  or  paro- 
chial school;  in  such  cases  the  substituted  education  must  be 
in  English  and  must  be  approved  by  the  town  school  committee. 
Tax  exemption,  the  visitorial  powers  of  school  committees,  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  and  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, and  the  requirement  of  approval  establish  relations  which 
bring  private  and  parochial  schools  into  the  state  system  of 
schools. 

2.  Free  public  high  schools,  established  and  maintained  by 
the  towns  and  cities  of  the  state  under  mandatory  statutes  and 
partly  supported  by  state  appropriations. 

Towns  not  maintaining  high  schools  are  required  to  make 
provision  for  high  school  education  for  town  children  at  ap- 
proved public  high  schools  in  other  towns  or  at  approved  acade- 
mies, and  receive  state  aid  on  the  same  per  pupil  basis  as  towns 
which  maintain  high  schools.  Tax  exemption,  visitation  and 
approval  bring  certain  academies  into  the  state  system. 

3.  The  Rhode  Island  State  College,  established  by  the  state 
and  maintained,  in  part  by  state  appropriation,  and  in  part  by 
appropriations  and  the  income  of  funds  provided  by  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States.     Tuition  at  the  college  is  free  to 
residents  of  Rhode  Island. 

4.  Free  public  evening  elementary  and  high  schools,  estab- 
lished and  maintained  by  towns  and  cities  and  supported  in 
part  by  state  appropriations. 

5.  The  Rhode  Island  Normal  School,  maintained  by  the 
state,  whose  function  is  the  education  of  teachers  for  the  free 
public  schools.     Tuition  is  free  to  residents  of  the  state. 

6.  The  graduate  department  of  education  in  Brown  Uni- 
versity, established  by  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  the 
corporation  of  the  university,  for  the  purpose  of  training  high 
school  teachers,  principals  and  superintendents  of  schools. 

7.  The  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  an  institution  estab- 
lished by  public-spirited  citizens,  controlled  by  a  quasi-public 


450  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

corporation  and  supported  partly  by  private  aid  and  the  income 
of  trust  funds,  and  in  large  part  by  state  appropriations.  The 
state  pays  for  free  state  scholarships. 

8.  Rhode  Island  College  of  Pharmacy  and  Allied  Sciences. 
Free  state  scholarships. 

9.  A  group  of  special  institutions — 

a.  The  State  Home  and  School,  for  neglected  and 
dependent  children. 

b.  The  Rhode  Island  Institute  for  the  Deaf. 

c.  The  Exeter  School. 

d.  The  Sockanosset  School  for  Boys — correctional. 

e.  The  Oaklawn  School  for  Girls — correctional. 

The  Administrative  Force. — The  administrative  force  for  the 
state-town  system  of  free  public  schools  consists  of: 

1.  The  State  Board  of  Education. 

2.  The  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

3.  Town  school  committees,  employing — • 

a.  Superintendents  of  schools. 

b.  Principals  and  teachers.    • 

c.  Truant  officers. 

d.  Census  enumerators. 

e.  Medical  inspectors. 

This  administrative  force  is  essentially  independent  of  the 
system  of  city  and  town  government. 

Educational  Institutions. — The  state's  educational  institutions 
are  administered  by— 

1.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Rhode  Island  Normal 
School,  consisting  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

2.  The  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Rhode  Island  State  Col- 
lege, including  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

3.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Rhode  Island  School  of 
Design,  which  includes  two  members  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education  and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

4.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  for 
the  Deaf,  which  reports  to  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

5.  The  Penal  and  Charitable  Commission,  which  controls 
the  Rhode  Island  State  Home  and  School,  the  Sockanosset  and 
Oaklawn  Schools,  and  the  Exeter  School,  and  reports  to  the 
State  Board  of  Education. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  451 

PROBLEMS  OF  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION. 

In  the  foregoing  historical  treatment  of  school  administration 
in  Rhode  Island,  emphasis  has  rested  principally  upon  the 
creation  of  an  organism,  consisting  of  officers,  committees  and 
boards,  to  administer  a  system  of  schools,  and  upon  the  powers, 
functions  and  duties  of  the  organism  as  a  whole  and  of  its  parts. 
The  work  has,  in  the  main,  been  descriptive  and  analytic. 
Where  synthesis  has  followed  analysis  it  has  proceeded  little 
further  than  enumeration  and  classification.  Relations  and 
correlations  remain  to  be  established,  particularly  between  the 
"duty  to  do"  and  the  "thing  to  be  done."  In  the  outline  of 
school  administration  in  Rhode  Island,  which  follows,  the  reader 
who  has  studied  carefully  what  has  gone  before  will-  find  himself 
in  familiar  surroundings  dealing  with  facts  which  are,  for  the 
most  part,  not  new.  Still,  he  is  not  asked  merely  to  retrace  his 
steps;  as  a  review  and  summary  the  outline  presents  a  new 
perspective. 

School  administration  is  an  art  or  an  applied  science  which 
rests  upon  the  school  law.  Conversely,  the  school  law  is  the 
framework  of  the  state's  educational  system  and  contains  the 
fundamental  principles  of  school  administration.  An  outline 
of  the  school  law,  arranged  topically,  may  serve,  therefore,  as 
an  outline  for  school  administration,  suggesting  the  problems 
of  school  administration  and  setting  forth  the  law's  solution  of 
them  as  it  provides  the  machinery  for  action  and  names  the 
person  or  body  which  is  charged  with  the  "duty  to  do"  the 
"thing  to  be  done."  Such  an  outline  of  the  law,  and  therefore 
of  school  administration,  follows : 

A.     School  Property — The  Physical  Equipment. 

I.     Hand  and  Buildings. 

1.  Provision  of  school  accommodations  is  an  obligation 
of  the  town.  If  the  town  fails  to  provide  quar- 
ters, the  school  committee  may  provide  tem- 
porary quarters  at  the  expense  of  the  town. 


452  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

2.  Location  of  school  sites  is  the  exclusive  function  of  the 

school  committee — subject  to  the  usual  appeal. 

3.  Condemnation  proceedings  are    inaugurated  and  con- 

ducted by  the  school  committee. 

4.  Plans  for  school  buildings,  with  standards  for  heating, 

lighting,  ventilating,  sanitary  arrangements  and 
seating  may  be  approved  by  the  State  Board  of 
Education  and  communicated  to  town  officers  con- 
ducting school  building  operations. 

5.  Construction  legally  should  be  under  supervision  of  school 

committee.  The  practice  varies  from  town  to 
town,  however.  The  school  committee,  joint 
committees  of  the  town  council  and  special  com- 
mittees appointed  in  town  meeting  act.  In  Prov- 
idence and  Cranston  the  city  councils  control  con- 
struction and  reparation. 

6.  Closing  a  school  does  not  operate  as  an  abandonment 

.  of  property  for  school  use. 

II.     Furniture  and  Equipment. 

1.  Equipment  of  a  new  school  building  is  a  function  of  the 

school  committee,  except  in  Providence  and 
Cranston. 

2.  Replacing  furniture  and  equipment  is  a  function  of  the 

school  committee. 

III.     Books  and  Apparatus. 

1.  Choice  of  textbooks  rests  with  the  school  committee.  The 

state  department's  authority  to  encourage  uni- 
formity of  textbooks  is  only  hortative.  Change 
of  textbooks  is  permitted  only  once  in  three  years, 
L  without  the  approval  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education  first  being  obtained. 

2.  Books  and  supplies  must  be  provided  by  the  school  com- 

mittee at  the  expense  of  the  town. 

B.     School  Finance. 
I.     Sources  of  School  Revenue. 

1.  General  taxation  and  appropriations.    Every  town  must 

appropriate  at  least  as  much  money  for  support 
of  schools  annually  as  it  receives  from  the  state. 
Penalty,  forfeiture  of  state  school  money,  without 
release  from  responsibility. 

2.  State  support  of  public  schools. 

a.  Teachers'  money.  $100  per  school  up  to  15  schools 
per  town;  participation  in  the  apportionment  of 
the  balance  of  $120,000,  on  the  basis  of  school 
population. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  453 

b.  Aid  for  high  schools.  $25  per  pupil  up  to  25  pupils; 
$15  per  pupil  from  26  to  50  pupils  —  paid  to 
towns  maintaining  high  schools  or  sending 
children  to  academies  or  high  schools  in  other 
towns.  Provision  of  high  school  education  man- 
datory. 

c.  Aid  for  evening  schools.    The  State  Board  of  Educa- 

tion apportions  an  annual  appropriation. 

d.  Teachers'  minimum  salaries.     The  state  pays  one- 

half  the  amount  necessary  to  raise  all  teachers' 
salaries  to  the  minimum  of  $400. 

e.  Supervision.     The  state  pays  $750  annually  toward 

the  salary  of  a  superintendent  of  schools  receiv- 
ing at  least  $1500.  The  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion may  provide  supervision  for  certain  towns, 
at  an  expense  not  to  exceed  $750  per  town. 

f.  Apparatus.     Up  to  $10  per  school  and  $200  per  town, 

the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  may  pay  half 
the  expense  of  providing  apparatus,  dictionaries, 
reference  books,  etc.,  for  public  schools. 

g.  Manual  training  and  household  arts.     The  State 

Board  of  Education  may  pay  half  the  cost  of 

providing  apparatus, 
h.     Industrial  education  and  vocational  courses.     The 

State  Board  of  Education  may  pay  half  the  cost 

of  instruction, 
i.     Medical  inspection.     Up  to  $250  a  town  may  receive 

from  the  state  half  the  cost  of  medical  inspection 

for  public  or  private  schools. 

j.     Graded  schools.     The  state  pays  $100  for  each  de- 
partment of  a  graded  school  produced  by  the 

consolidation  of  three  or  more  ungraded  schools; 

also  $100  for  each  ungraded  school  consolidated 

with  a  graded  school, 
k.     Special  aid.     To  assist  towns  unable  at  the  average 

rate  of  taxation  throughout  the  state  to  maintain 

schools  of  high  standard,  the  state  appropriates 

$5000  annually. 

3.  Poll  taxes  and  dog  license  money  must  be  transferred  to 

the  town  school  account  annually  on  the  first 
Monday  in  May. 

4.  Tuition  paid  by  out-of-town  pupils  must  be  transferred 

to  the  town  school  account. 

5.  Proceeds  of  the  sale  of  school  property,  other  than  land 

and  buildings,  must  be  transferred  to  the  town 
school  account. 


454  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

6.  Fines  under  the  truancy  law  belong  to  the  school  account. 

7.  Gifts  and  endowments  for  school  support,  if  accepted, 

must  be  used  and  administered  according  to  the 
trust. 

8.  Federal  aid  for  vocational  education,  apportioned  by  State 

Board  for  Vocational  Education. 

II.  Custody  of  school  money. 

1.  State  school  money  is  paid  to  the  town  treasurer. 

2.  School  appropriations  remain  in  the  custody  of  the  town 

treasurer. 

3.  Town  treasurers  are  required  to  keep  a  separate  account 

of  school  money. 

III.  Payments. 

1.  Orders  on  the  school  funds  may  be  drawn  only  by  the 

school  committee. 

2.  Disbursement  of  school  money  is  limited  to  school  pur- 

poses. 

3.  Limitation  of  the  discretion  of  the  school  cpmrnittee  in 

expending  school  money  is  not  favored.  It  has 
been  held  that  appropriations  for  special  school 
purposes  simply  transfer  money  to  the  general 
school  account,  for  expenditure  by  the  committee 
at  discretion.  Separate  appropriations  for  con- 
struction of  new  schoolhouses  are  customary,  how- 
ever, because  the  school  building  and  the  land 
upon  which  it  stands  are  town  property,  originally 
and  ultimately. 

4.  Interference  with  the  school  committee's  right  to  appor- 

tion school  funds,  such  as,  for  instance,  an  ordi- 
nance establishing  salaries,  is  illegal,  and  so  a 
designation  of  special  purposes  does  not  bind  the 
school  committee. 

IV.  Town  liability  for  school  expenses. 

1.     The  town's  duty  to  provide  sufficient  school  accommo- 
dations and  schools  is  mandatory.     Hence 

a.  The  school  committee  may  charge  the  town's  credit 

for  the  support  of  schools  when  no  money  for  school 
purposes  has  been  provided  or  is  available. 

b.  Insufficient  appropriations  do  not  limit  the  school 

committee's  duty  and  right  to  provide  and  con- 
duct schools. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  455 

c.  Deficits,  while  they  should  be  avoided  if  possible, 
are  not  unpardonable  when  the  town's  appropria- 
tions for  school  support  are  insufficient. 

V.     Financial  Reports. 

1.  Town  treasurers  are  required  .to  report — 

a.  To  the  school  committee  on  July  1  the  amount  of 

school  money  available  for  the  current  school  year 
and  the  sources  from  which  it  has  been  derived. 

b.  To  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  the  amount 

of  town  school  appropriations,  the  payments  made 
from  the  town  treasury  for  school  purposes,  and 
the  accounts  to  which  they  have  been  charged. 

2.  School  committees  are  required  to  report — 

a.  To  the  town  in  town  meeting. 

b.  To  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

3.  The  double  system  of  reports  enables  the  Commissioner  of 

Public  Schools  to  check  up  accounts  for  errors. 

C.     School  Teachers. 
I.     Eligibility  and  certification,  or  licensing. 

1.  Certification  or  licensing  of  teachers  and  superintend- 

ents of  schools  is  exclusively  a  function  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education. 

a.  Professional  certificates  are  issued — 

1.  To  graduates    of    colleges  who    have    com- 

pleted six  courses  in  education. 

2.  To  graduates  of  approved  normal  schools. 

b.  Non-professional    certificates     and   temporary     or 

special  certificates  are  issued  upon  successful  ex- 
amination. 

2.  Revocation  of  certificates  for  cause  is  a  function  of  the 

State  Board  of  Education. 

3.  Employment  of  a  teacher  without  a  certificate  is  reason 

for  forfeiture  of  so  much  of  the  town's  share 
of  school  money  as  equals  the  wages  paid  by  the 
town  to  the  teacher  thus  illegally  engaged. 

II.  Selection,  appointment  and  dismissal  of  teachers  are  ex- 
clusively functions  of  the  school  committee. 
1.  Appointments  of  teachers  and  superintendents  are  made 
directly  or  confirmed  by  school  committees.  The 
power  to  appoint,  subject  to  confirmation,  is 
sometimes  delegated  to  a  sub-committee  or  to  the 
superintendent. 


456  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   EHODE   ISLAND. 

2.  No  person  is  eligible  to  appointment  as  teacher  or  super- 

intendent unless  he  holds  a  certificate. 

3.  Tenure  of  employment  is  presumably  for  the  whole  or 

the  balance  of  a  school  year  of  at  least  36  weeks. 
In  some  towns  employment,  after  a  probationary 
period,  is  practically  during  good  behavior;  the 
term  "permanent "  is  used.  A  contract  giving  the 
committee  right  to  terminate  it  on  notice  is  con- 
trary to  public  policy. 

4.  Dismissal  of  the  teacher  is  a  function  exclusively  of  the 

school  committee;  it  must  be  for  cause,  and  the 
teacher  has  a  right  to  a  hearing. 

5.  Termination  of  the  teacher's  employment  other  than  by 

expiration  of  term  or  dismissal  for  cause,  may  be 
only  for  such  reasons  as  would  excuse  the  school 
committee  from  fulfillment  of  a  contract. 

6.  A  member  of  a  school  committee  is  not  eligible  for  election 

as  teacher  or  superintendent. 

III.     The  teacher's  salary  must  be  at  least  $400  annually  for  a 
school  year. 

IV.  Duties  of  the  teacher. 

1.  To  observe  and  enforce  rules  and  regulations. 

2.  To  teach  the  course  of  study. 

3.  To  keep  a  school  register  and  report  to  the  Commissioner 

of  Public  Schools,  if  requested. 

4.  To  keep  records  of  vaccination,  and  exclude  from  school 

children  who  are  not  vaccinated  or  excused  from 
vaccination. 

5.  To  implant  and  cultivate  in  the  minds  of  the  pupils  sound 

principles  of  morality. 

6.  To  prepare  programmes  for  observance  of  school  holidays. 

7.  If  in  charge  of  a  building,  to  conduct  fire  drills. 

8.  To  conduct  physical  education  twenty  minutes  each  day. 

V.  Pensions  for  teachers  are  provided  by  the  state,  the  law 

being  administered  by  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. 

VI.  Schoolmasters  are  exempt  from  jury  duty. 
D.    School  Administration  and  Supervision. 

I.  Rules  and  regulations  for  the  government  of  schools  may 
be  adopted  and  enforced  by  school  committees,  sub- 
ject to  approval  by  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools. 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  457 

II.  •  Courses  of  Study.     . 

1.  For  common  schools  may  be  adopted  by  the  school 

committee,  with  the  direction  and  advice  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

2.  For  high  schools,  are  adopted  by  the  school  com- 

mittee, subject  to  approval  by  the  State  Board  of 
Education. 

3.  Must  include  instruction  in  alcoholic  physiology. 

4.  Must  include  physical  training. 

III.  A  minimum  school  year  of  36  weeks  is  prescribed  by  law. 

For  high  schools  the  minimum  school  year  ap- 
proved by  the  State  Board  of  Education  is  38 
weeks. 

1.  January  1,  February  22,  May  30,  July  4,  October  12 

and  December  25  are  school  holidays.  Falling 
on  Sunday,  the  day  following  is  the  holiday. 

2.  February  12,  May  4  and  Arbor  Day  are  days  of 

special  school  observance. 

IV.  A  superintendent  of  schools  must  be  employed  by  the 

town  school  committee.  By  assuming  payment 
of  part  of  the  superintendent's  salary,  the  state 
encourages  the  employment  of  full-time  superin- 
tendents. 

1.     The  statutory  duties  prescribed  for  the  superin- 
tendent are : 

a.  To  undertake  the  duties  prescribed  for  him  by 
the  school  committee. 

b.  To  conduct  sight  and  hearing  tests  annually. 

c.  To  be  the  chief   administrative   agent   of  the 

school  committee. 

d.  To  assist  the  committee  in  keeping  records  and 

making  reports. 

e.  To  recommend  teachers  for  appointment. 

f .  To  recommend  textbooks,  supplies,  and  equip- 

ment. 

g.  To  recommend  repairs  and  improvements. 

h.     To  report  to  the  committee  at  least  annually. 

V.  Health  of  school  children. 

1.  Medical  inspection  for  public  and  private  schools 

may  be  provided  by  the  school  committee. 

2.  Superintendents  are  required  to  conduct  sight  and 

.  hearing  tests  annually. 


458  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

3.  School  committees  may  provide  dental  clinics. 

4.  The  law  prescribes  physical  education. 

E.    Pupils. 

I.    Right  to  attend  school. 

1.  No  person  may  be  excluded  from  any  public  school 

because  of  race  or  color,  or  for  being  more  than 
15  years  of  age,  or  for  any  reason  except  by  gen- 
eral rule  applicable  to  similar  cases. 

2.  The  right  to  attend  school  includes  the  right  to  high 

school  education  at  the  expense  of  the  town  if  no 
high  school  is  provided  by  the  town. 

3.  A  pupil  may  be  refused  admission  or  excluded  from 

school  if  he  is  not  vaccinated,  or  excused  from 
vaccination  by  reason  of  danger  to  his  health. 

4.  Failure  of  success  in  maintaining  standards — back- 

wardness— is  not  a  valid  reason  for  exclusion. 

5.  Incorrigibly  bad  conduct  permits  the  school  com- 

mittee to  suspend  a  pupil,  but  not  to  expel  him. 

II.     Compulsory  Attendance. 

1.  Children  7  to  16  years,  inclusive,  must  attend  day 

school. 

2.  Responsibility  of  the  child.     The  child  must  attend 

day  school  regularly  until  he  is  at  least  16  years 
of  age,  or  until  he  has  completed  the  eight  ele- 
mentary grades,  or  until  being  over  14  years  old, 
he  is  legally  employed  or  engaged  in  business; 
and  thereafter  in  both  instances  as  long  as  he  is 
sent  to  school  by  his  parents. 

3.  Responsibility  of  the  parent.     The  parent  must  send 

his  child  to  school  until  the  child  is  16  years  old, 
or  has  sooner  completed  the  eight  elementary 
grades,  or  is  over  14  and  legally  employed  or 
engaged  in  business;  but  is  excused  if  the  child's 
mental  condition  forbids  it,  or  the  child  has  not 
suitable  clothing,  or  if  the  child  is  excluded  from 
school  by  operation  of  a  general  rule. 

4.  Responsibility  of  employer.     No  child  under  14  may 

be  employed,  and  no  child  over  14  and  under  16 
without  an  age  and  employment  certificate. 

5.  Age  and  employment  certificates,  permitting  employ- 

ment, are  issued  by  school  committees  to  children 
who  meet  all  the  following  requirements : 


SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION.  459 

a.  Age,  14  years.     Age  must  be  proved  by  birth  or 
baptismal  certificate  or  by  passport,  or  by  other 
evidence  satisfactory  to  the  Secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education. 

b.  Ability  to  read  at  sight  and  write  legibly  simple 
sentences  in  the  English  language. 

c.  Satisfactory  physical  examination  by  a  licensed 

physician,  who  must  certify  that  the  child  is  in 
sufficiently  sound  health  to  engage  in  the  employ- 
ments permitted  for  children.  The  state  pays  for 
the  examination;  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  appoints  two  examining  physicians  for 
Providence. 

6.  Exceptions.     In  lieu  of  attendance  at  public  school, 

the  child  may  attend  an  approved  private  or 
parochial  school,  or  may  be  instructed  privately 
if  the  instruction  is  approved  by  the  school  com- 
mittee. 

7.  The  machinery  for  enforcing  the  law: 

a.  The  school  committee  must  have  an  annual  census 

of  children  of  school  age  taken.  Returns  of  the 
census  must  be  made  to  the  Commissioner  of 
Public  Schools. 

b.  Teachers  are  required  to  keep  attendance  records, 
and  report  truancy. 

c.  The  school  committee  must  appoint  truant  officers, 

whose  duties  include  attention  to  truants  and  to 
those  children  who  do  not  attend  or  are  not  sent 
to  school. 

d.  Factory  inspectors,  as  well  as  truant  officers,  are 
required  to  enforce  the  age  and  employment  cer- 
tificate law. 

e.  Age  and  employment  certificates  are  valid  only 

during  employment. 

III.     Rights  and  Duties  of  the  Child  in  School. 

1.  The  child  is  entitled  to  attendance  in  his  own  town 

free  of  charges  for  tuition,  and  to  free  textbooks 
and  supplies  of  all  kinds  necessary  for  his  work. 

2.  The  child  is  bound  to  attend  school  regularly,  and  to 

conform  to  rules  and  regulations,  and  reasonable 
standards  of  deportment.  • 

3.  Services  may  not  be  required  of  the  child. 

4.  Hazing  is  a  criminal  offence. 


460  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

F.     Law  Enforcement. 

I.  Appeals  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

1.  Any  person  aggrieved  by  any  action  or  doing  of  a 

school  committee  may  appeal  to  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools.  The  Commissioner  must  hear 
the  parties  and  render  a  decision. 

2.  The  Commissioner's  jurisdiction  is  not  confined  to 

appeals  arising  from  illegal  action  of  school  com- 
mittees; he  may  review  any  action  of  a  school 
committee,  even  action  within  the  discretion  of 
the  committee. 

3.  The  Commissioner's  decision  is  final  when  approved 

by  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

4.  The  Commissioner  has  no  effective  power  to  enforce 

his  decision;  in  civil  court  proceedings  based  upon 
failure  to  comply  with  his  decision,  the  matter 
decided  is  res  adjudicata.  Mandamus  is  the 
remedy  suggested. 

II.  The  right  to  appeal  to  the  Commissioner  does  not  de- 

prive the  party  who  might  appeal  of  his  right  to 
seek  relief  in  the  law  courts. 

III.  Mandatory  statutes. 

1.  Obedience  by  municipalities  and  public  officers  is 

presumed. 

2.  Mandamus   affords   an   extraordinary   remedy    for 

violation. 

3.  The  school  committee,  as  a  body  distinct  and  sepa- 

rate from  the  municipal  organization,  may  charge 
the  town's  credit  when  the  town  has  failed  to 
provide  "ways  and  means"  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  law. 

IV.  Attractive  legislation. 

1.  The  state  encourages  compliance  by  state  aid. 

2.  Hortatory  legislation  tends  to  become  mandatory. 

V.  Penalties.     In  certain  instances  the  law  provides  penal- 

ties by  forfeiture  or  fine. 

VI.  In  the  last  analysis  enlightened  public  opinion  is  the 

most  effective  instrument  for  law  enforcement. 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  SCHOOL  TEACHER. 


There  is  no  element  in  a  school  more  essential  than  the 
teacher.  A  school  may  be  conducted  without  bdoks,  black- 
boards, maps,  charts  or  other  school  apparatus;  with  nothing 
attractive  or  instructive  to  cover  the  bare  walls  of  a  poorly 
constructed,  wholly  unsuitable  building.  The  unfinished  walls 
themselves  may  be  made  eloquent  auxiliaries  of  the  teacher,  as 
they  were  in  the  primitive  schoolroom  of  Pestalozzi.  The 
teacher  makes  the  school;  the  memory  of  the  good  teacher 
lingers  after  classmates,  school  books  and  schoolroom  are  for- 
gotten; when  the  intimate  image  of  a  particular  old  school- 
house  has  faded  into  a  more  general  recollection  of  a  "little  red 
schoolhouse"  somewhere. 

Of  early  Rhode  Island  public  school  teachers  town  records 
preserve  many  names.  The  early  schoolmaster  sometimes  had  a 
vocation  that  he  pursued  in  connection  with,  if  not  in  correlation 
with,  his  avocation  of  education.  In  churchly  towns  he  might 
be  rector  of  the  village  church;  Robert  Lenthal,  the  first  Rhode 
Island  schoolmaster,  was  called  to  Newport  both  to  teach  in  the 
town  school  and  to  preach  in  the  town  church.  William  Turpin, 
the  first  Providence  schoolmaster,  kept  an  inn. 

The  salary  of  the  early  Rhode  Island  schoolmaster  was  a 
meagre  compensation,  even  for  the  service  of  education.  Land 
grants  for  school  purposes  were  intended  to  furnish  the  master 
with  a  "living,"  which  he  was  compelled  to  extract  from  the  soil 
largely  through  his  own  labor.  Sometimes  the  "living ".was 
supplemented  by  a  small  annual  salary  from  the  town  treasury, 
but  quite  as  often  the  town  became  merely  the  guarantor  of  a 


462  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

minimum  salary,  agreeing  to  make  up  the1  balance  of  a  salary 
not  received  in  tuitions  paid  by  pupils.  There  is  ample  reason 
for  belief,  from  careful  reading  of  records,  that  more  than  one 
early  town  schoolhouse  was  a  dwelling  as  well  as  a  schoolhouse, 
occupied  by  the  schoolmaster  rent  free  as  part  of  his  compensa- 
tion. %This  certainly  was  true  of  the  Potter  school  at  Newport. 
Payment  of  salaries  was  not  invariably  made  in  money;  the 
early  records  sometimes  specify  other  "legal  tender." 

Professional  teachers  made  their  appearance  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  professional  teacher  might  work  at  a  trade  or 
other  occupation  incidentally,  but  he  was  not,  as  was  the  seven- 
teenth century  schoolmaster,  following  another  occupation  as 
his  principal  business  in  life  and  teaching  incidentally.  From 
being  an  avocation,  teaching  with  the  professional  teacher  had 
become  a  vocation.  The  Jacksons  and  Taylors  of  Providence 
were  professional  school  teachers,  and  the  records  of  other  towns 
preserve  other  names  of  professional  schoolmasters.  In  the  list  of 
professional  teachers  of  the  eighteenth  century  such  names  as 
Casey,  Crocker,  Donally,  Knox  and  Slattery  indicate  the  popu- 
larity of  Irish  schoolmasters,  many  of  whom  were  esteemed  as 
excellent  teachers,  who  endeared  themselves  to  their  pupils.  A 
mysterious  schoolmaster,  known  in  reminiscence  as  Mr.  A.  B., 
taught  school  excellently  in  several  towns,  furnished  books  for 
his  pupils,  received  pupils  without  tuition,  and  vanished  without 
disclosing  his  identity.  The  field  of  early  school  history  is  quite 
as  romantic  as  authentic.  Women  teachers  began  to  replace 
men  toward  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  TEACHER. 

The  earliest  standard  of  qualifications  for  school  teachers 
appeared  in  the  school  law  of  1800,  section  9  of  which  provided 
that  "no  person  shall  establish  or  direct,  as  master  or  preceptor, 
any  school  or  academy  of  instruction  in  reading,  writing,  gram- 
mar or  mathematics  unless  he  shall  be  a  native  or  naturalized 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  463 

citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  be  approved  by  a  certificate  in 
writing  from  the  town  council  of  the  town  in  which  he  shall 
teach ;  and  any  preceptor  or  schoolmaster  who  shall  establish  or 
direct  any  school  or  academy  as  aforesaid,  not  being  a  citizen  and 
not  having  a  certificate  as  aforesaid,  shall  forfeit  and  pay  as  a 
fine  the  sum  of  $50,  to  be  recovered  by  indictment  for  the  use  of 
the  state,  or  by  action  of  debt,  one  half  for  the  use  of  the  person 
who  shall  prosecute  the  same  and  the  other  half  to  the  use  of  the 
state." 

The  law  of  1800  was  repealed  before  any  test  could  be  made 
of  its  application  to  teachers  even  in  public  schools.  It  ven- 
tured somewhat  beyond  any  modern  Rhode  Island  law  govern- 
ing certification  of  teachers,  in  so  far  as  it  required  that  all 
teachers  in  all  schools,  whether  public  or  private,  hold  certificates 
issued  by  public  authority.  The  compulsory  attendance  law, 
through  which  the  state  and  towns  supervise  and  regulate  private 
instruction  so  far  as  it  purports  to  impart  the  education  common 
to  all  prescribed  by  law,  requires  that  private  instruction, 
attendance  at  which  is  accepted  in  lieu  of  attendance  at  public 
day  schools,  shall  first  be  approved  as  substantially  equivalent, 
in  content  and  in  method  and  in  effectiveness,  to  public  school 
instruction,  but  gives  to  public  school  official  administrative 
agencies  no  direct  control  over  teachers  in  other  than  public 
schools.  The  town  school  committee  may  refuse  to  approve  a 
private  school  for  purposes  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law, 
and  if  the  hours  of  instruction  in  the  private  school  conflict  with 
those  of  attendance  at  public  day  school,  effectually  close  the 
private  school  for  want  of  pupils.  But  if  the  hours  of  instruction 
and  attendance  do  not  conflict,  then  the  private  school  may  go 
on  unrestricted  save  by  the  law  of  diminishing  probability. 

The  act  of  1800  aimed  at  certification  of  every  teacher  of  the 
common  branches,  whether  employed  in  public  or  private 
schools.  Perhaps  it  may  be  interpreted  as  reflecting  the  state's 
general  attitude  toward  public  education.  It  probably  was 


464  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

not  anticipated  that  the  free  public  schools  to  be  established 
under  the  act  of  1800  would  accommodate  so  large  a  proportion 
of  the  school  population  as  do  the  modern  free  public  schools. 
If  a  considerable  proportion,  perhaps  the  larger  proportion  of 
the  public's  children  were  to  be  educated  in  private  schools,  then 
it  was  important  that  private  school  teachers  be  examined  and 
licensed  to  teach  if  the  state  assumed  no  greater  responsibility 
for  education  of  the  public's  children  than  the  maintenance  of 
standards  for  instruction.  The  large  number  of  private  schools 
conducted  in  Providence  between  1800  and  1828,  at  the  same 
time  that  the  town  was  maintaining  four  free  public  schools, 
indicates  the  relative  importance  of  the  private  school  and 
private  instruction  in  the  period.  With  the  rapid  extension  of 
the  public  school  after  the  state,  in  1828,  undertook  in  earnest 
a  share  in  the  burden  of  supporting  public  education,  the  rela- 
tive importance  of  private  schools  diminished  rapidly.  Select 
private  schools  now  are  educating  not  quite  one  per  cent,  of 
children  of  school  age;  parochial  school  attendance  is  approxi- 
mately one-sixth  of  school  population. 

Petitions  for  improvement  of  public  schools  in  Providence 
and  reports  upon  the  condition  of  these  schools  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  almost  invariably  condemned 
the  inefficiency  of  teaching,  assigning  two  reasons,  one  of  which, 
that  salaries  paid  were  too  low  to  attract  competent  instructors, 
indicted  both  the  teachers  and  the  public  administrative  agencies 
in  control  of  the  schools,  and  the  other,  that  classes  were  so 
large  as  to  make  effective  instruction  impossible,  absolved  the 
teachers. 

The  school  law  of  1828  specified  no  particular  qualifications 
for  teachers.  School  committees  were  empowered  to  "appoint 
all  the  schoolmasters  or  school  mistresses  to  be  employed  in 
teaching  the  schools,  taking  care  that  such  masters  and  mis- 
tresses are  qualified  for  the  task."  The  law  of  1839  marked  a 
forward  step,  in  its  provision  that  "  the  school  committee  shall 


THE   SCHOOL  TEACHER.  465 

appoint  all  instructors  and  instructresses,  taking  care  that  they 
be  of  good  moral  character,  temperate  and  otherwise  well 
qualified  for  the  office."  School  committees  were  required  in 
1842  to  "ascertain  by  their  personal  examination,  or  that  of  a 
committee  to  be  appointed  by  them,  the  qualifications  and 
capacity  for  the  government  of  schools  of  all  instructors  that 
may  be  employed  in  their  respective  towns."  No  person  could 
be  employed  thereafter  in  any  public  school  "unless  before  he 
opens  such  school  his  qualifications  and  capacity  shall  be  ascer- 
tained .  .  .  and  he  shall  obtain  from  the  committee  of 
examination  a  certificate  that  he  is  qualified  to  teach  such 
school."  Providence,  North  Providence,  and  Smithfield  were 
exempted  from  the  provisions  of  this  act. 

The  Barnard  law  of  1845  required  every  teacher  employed  in 
schools  supported  in  whole  or  in  part  by  public  money  to  hold 

(1)  a  certificate  signed  by  the  chairman  of  the  town  school 
committee,  or  a  sub-committee  empowered  for  the  purpose,  or 

(2)  a  certificate  signed  by  a  school  inspector  appointed  for  the 
county  by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  or  (3)  a  cer- 
tificate signed  by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.     Cer- 
tificates issued  by  or  under  authority  of  the  school  committee 
were  valid  for  one  year  and  only  in  the  town;  certificates  signed 
by  county  inspectors  were  valid  for  two  years,  and  in  any  town 
in  the  county;  certificates  signed  by  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  were  valid  for  three  years  and  in  any  public  school  in 
the  state.     School  officers,  school  committees,  county  inspectors 
and  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools  were  forbidden  to  issue 
certificates  of  qualification  to  teachers  "unless  the  person  named 
in  the  same  shall  produce  evidence  of  good  moral  character  and 
be  found  on  examination,  or  by  experience,  qualified  to  teach 
the  English  language,  arithmetic,  penmanship  and  the  rudi- 
ments of  geography  and  history,  and  to  govern  a  school." 

The  "remarks"  published  with  the  school  law  added:     "No 
person  should  be  considered  qualified  to  teach  any  school,  who 


466  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN  RHODE   ISLAND. 

cannot  speak  and  write  the  English  language,  if  not  elegantly, 
at  least  correctly.  He  should  be  a  good  reader,  be  able  to  make 
himself  understood  and  feel  all  that  the  author  intended.  He 
should  be  able  to  give  the  analysis  as  well  as  explain  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words  of  the  sentence,  and  to  explain  all  dates  and 
names  and  allusions.  He  should  be  a  good  speller.  He  should 
understand  practically  the  first  principles  of  English  grammar 
.  .  .  He  should  also  be  able  to  write  a  good  hand,  to  make  a 
pen  and  to  teach  others  how  to  do  the  same.  He  should  show  his 
knowledge  of  geography  by  applying  his  definitions  of  the  ele- 
mentary principles  to  the  geography  of  his  own  town,  state  and 
county,  and  by  questions  on  the  map  and  globe.  He  should 
be  able  to  answer  promptly  all  questions  relating  to  the  leading 
events  of  the  history  of  the  United  States  and  of  his  own  state. 
In  arithmetic  he  should  be  well  versed  in  some  treatise  on  mental 
arithmetic,  and  be  able  to  work  out  before  the  committee 
.  .  .  such  questions  as  will  test  his  ability  to  teach  the  text- 
books on  arithmetic  prescribed  for  the  class  of  schools  he  will 
be  engaged  in."  The  "remarks"  suggested  teaching  a  practice 
class  or  lesson  as  a  good  test  for  ability  to  teach. 

In  practice  and  experience,  in  spite  of  the  longer  term  for 
state  and  county  certificates,  and  their  validity  in  a  wider 
territory  than  a  single  town,  and  in  union  grammar  as  well  as  in 
primary  schools,  few  teachers  sought  certification  by  other  than 
town  school  committees.  In  1857  the  school  committee  became 
the  exclusive  agency  for  examining  and  certificating  teachers, 
continuing  so  until  the  establishment  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Normal  School.  To  insure  recognition  of  the  Normal  School 
diploma,  the  trustees  were  given  authority  to  certificate  teachers. 

Until  the  revision  of  the  statutes  in  1872  there  was  no  change 
in  the  letter  of  the  law  relating  to  certificates  issued  by  school 
committees.  Except  for  omission  in  1873  of  the  requirement 
that  the  teacher  should  be  able  to  "make  a  pen,"  there  was  no 
change  in  the  instructions  for  school  committees  concerning  the 


THE    SCHOOL   TEACHER.  467 

examination  of  teachers  for  certification  until  1896,  when  the 
School  Manual  suggested  that  the  "  committee  would  also  have 
the  right  under  the  law  to  grant  a  certificate  for  one  term  at 
least,  without  an  examination,  to  a  person  having  a  diploma  from 
an  accredited  normal  school  or  college."  The  General  Statutes 
of  1873  provided  that  "the  school  committee  shall  not  sign  any 
certificate  unless  the  person  named  in  the  same  produce  evi- 
dence of  good  moral  character,  and  be  found  on  examination 
qualified  to  teach  the  various  branches  required  to  be  taught  in  the 
school."  The  change  consisted  merely  in  the  substitution  of  a 
general  statement  of  content  for  the  specific  subjects  named  in 
earlier  statutes. 

The  school  committee  was  given  authority  in  1877  to  limit  its 
certificates  to  a  portion  of  a  year,  the  law  reading:  " Such  cer- 
tificate, unless  annulled,  if  signed  by  the  school  committee, 
shall  be  valid  in  the  town  for  one  year,  or  for  such  portion 
thereof  as  shall  be  specified  in  said  certificate."  In  practice 
committees  had  long  ago  established  the  custom  of  limiting 
certificates  to  particular  districts  or  schools,  and  the  right  had 
been  sustained  by  a  decision  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  in  1852.  The  appeal  on  which  the  decision  was  ren- 
dered was  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  on  a  question  of  pro- 
cedure. The  Supreme  Court  in  its  decision  laid  down  the 
rule  prescribing  mandamus  as  the  proper  process  for  enforcing 
the  Commissioner's  decision.  Randall  vs.  Wetherell,  2  R.  I.  120. 

The  State  Board  of  Education  was  made  the  exclusive 
agency  for  examining  and  certificating  public  school  teachers  in 
1898.  The  law  provided  that  "no  person  shall  be  employed 
to  teach,  as  principal  or  assistant,  in  any  school  supported 
wholly  or  in  part  by  public  money  unless  such  person  shall 
have  a  certificate  of  qualification  issued  by,  or  under  the  au- 
thority of  the  State  Board  of  Education.  The  State  Board  of 
Education  shall  hold,  or  cause  to  be  held,  in  such  places  in 
different  parts  of  the  state,  and  at  such  times  as  they  may 


468  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

determine,  examinations  for  the  position  of  teacher  in  the  public 
schools  of  this  state;  and  said  Board  of  Education  is  hereby 
authorized  to  issue  certificates  of  qualifications,  which  shall  be 
valid  throughout  the  state  for  the  grade  and  time  specified 
therein."  The  Board  was  given  also  the  power  to  annul  cer- 
tificates for  cause,  a  power  formerly  exercised  by  school  com- 
mittees. The  committee's  power  to  annul  certificates  was  not 
specifically  repealed  by  the  act  of  1898.  Subsequent  legislation 
has  aimed  to  make  the  certificate  law  more  effective  by  pro- 
viding a  penalty  for  the  employment  of  a  teacher  without  a 
certificate.  The  certificate  law  was  extended  in  1908  to  cover 
persons  employed  as  superintendents  of  public  schools. 

The  law  of  1898,  which  substantially  is  the  law  at  the  present 
time,  entrusts  to  the  State  Board  of  Education  the  authority 
to  examine  and  certificate  teachers,  and  to  determine  the 
qualifications  that  the  teacher  must  have  for  certification.  The 
law  of  1898  permitted  the  State  Board  of  Education  to  issue 
certificates  of  qualification  without  examination  to  persons  who 
had  taught  in  the  public  schools  of  Rhode  Island  for  three  or 
more  years,  upon  filing  a  written  application  approved  by  the 
school  committee  of  the  town  wherein  the  applicant  had  taught 
the  greater  part  of  the  three  years  preceding  the  date  of  appli- 
cation. The  General  Laws  in  1909  gave  to  the  State  Board  of 
Education  general  authority  tp  issue  certificates  without 
examination,  in  a  section  which  provides :  "  Said  State  Board 
of  Education  may,  in  their  discretion,  issue  certificates  of  quali- 
fication without  examination,  to  persons  who  may  present 
evidence  of  qualification  and  shall  comply  with  the  regulations 
of  said  Board."  The  State  Board  of  Education  has  exer- 
cised the  power  to  grant  certificates  without  examination  to 
further  a  general  educational  policy  resting  upon  the  prin- 
ciple that  proof  of  preparation  for  teaching  is  much  better 
evidence  of  ability  to  teach  and  to  govern  a  school,  than  a 
successful  examination.  It  is  scarcely  possible,  and  it  is  en- 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  469 

tirely  impracticable  to  attempt,  to  set  examinations  so  com- 
prehensive and  so  thorough  as  to  test  accurately  the  ability  of 
the  candidate,  and  to  eliminate  entirely  the  element  of  chance. 
The  grading  of  certificates  has  emphasized  the  importance  of 
training,  and  school  committees  have  co-operated  with  the  State 
Board  of  Education  in  promoting  its  policy  by  giving  preference 
in  selecting  teachers  to  those  whose  certificates  rested  upon 
preparation.  Thus  what  was  first  an  incidental  power — the 
right  to  issue  certificates  without  examination — has  in  practice 
become  a  more  important  power  than  the  right  to  examine  and 
certificate.  In  recent  years,  excluding  renewals  of  certificates 
on  proof  of  satisfactory  experience  and  service,  of  new  cer- 
tificates the  number  granted  on  examination  has  varied  between 
10  and  15  per  cent.,  over  85  per  cent,  of  new  certificates  being 
granted  on  proof  of  suitable  training  and  preparation  for 
teaching. 

The  records  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  covering  20 
years  as  an  exclusive  agency  for  the  examination  and  certifica- 
tion of  teachers,  provide  an  unusual  accumulation  of  information 
concerning  the  personnel  of  the  public  school  teaching  corps. 
These  records  show  that  more  than  four-fifths  of  Rhode  Island 
teachers  have  had  professional  training  for  teaching,  a  propor- 
tion probably  exceeded  nowhere  in  the  United  States.  Com- 
parisons with  other  state  systems,  however,  may  not  be  made 
generally,  because  so  few  states  maintain  exclusive  certificating 
agencies  or  so  complete  records.  The  Board's  records  and 
records  kept  by  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  also  show  that 
a  much  larger  proportion  of  those  prepared  for  teaching  make 
it  a  life  work  than  had  been  believed.  The  number  of  cer- 
tificates renewed  from  time  to  time  indicates  that  teachers 
continue  in  service,  and  proves  the  stability  of  the  teaching 
personnel  in  Rhode  Island.  The  average  professional  life  of  the 
Rhode  Island  public  school  teacher  is  many  times  greater  than 
the  common  estimate.  All  this  counts  for  better  service  and 


470  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

better  schools.  In  succeeding  paragraphs  it  will  be  shown  that 
Rhode  Island  has  aimed  at  improving  the  qualifications  of 
teachers  by  preparing  well-qualified  teachers  rather  than  solely 
by  excluding  those  found  upon  examination  not  to  be  well 
qualified. 

PREPARATION  FOR  TEACHING. 

It  may  be  possible  to  establish  and  maintain  qualification^  for 
public  service  by  law  and  to  select  a  competent  personnel  by 
examination  or  otherwise,  provided  agencies,  public  or  private, 
are  educating  persons  sufficiently,  and  definitely  enough  in  par- 
ticular instances,  for  the  service.  Thus  the  United  States 
Government  has  been  able  to  recruit  the  personnel  of  the 
general  civil  service  without  undertaking  to  provide  special 
education  or  special  educational  institutions  for  the  training  of 
those  whose  employment  has  been  deemed  necessary.  For  two 
departments  of  public  service,  the  army  and  the  navy,  the 
Government  established  schools  at  an  early  period,  and  it  has 
from  time  to  time  supplemented  the -professional  schools  at 
West  Point  and  Annapolis  by  other  agencies.  When  the  state 
of  Rhode  Island  in  1845  undertook  definitely  to  improve  public 
schools,  and  particularly  instruction  in  public  schools,  it  was 
realized  that  no  public  or  private  agency  in  the  state  was  edu- 
cating and  training  teachers  for  public  schools,  and  a  normal 
school  for  teacher  training  was  authorized.  After  failure  of  the 
department  of  education  established  at  Brown  University  in 
1850,  and  a  private  normal  school  opened  in  Providence  in  1852, 
the  state  in  1854  provided  an  appropriation  for  a  public  normal 
school.  The  course  of  study  at  Rhode  Island  Normal  School 
may  serve  as  an  approximately  fair  measure  of  standard  quali- 
fications for  teaching  in  Rhode  Island  public  schools. 

The  course  of  study  for  the  early  public  normal  school  in- 
cluded geography,  physical  and  political,  with  the  use  of  the 
globe  and  outline  maps,  and  map  drawing;  orthography, 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  471 

phonetic  and  etymological  analysis;  English  grammar,  with 
analysis  of  sentences;  rhetorical  reading,  including  analysis  of 
language,  history  of  the  English  language  and  literature,  and 
the  critical  study  of  select  works;  original  composition  and 
other  rhetorical  exercises;  logic;  writing,  including  spelling, 
paragraphing,  capitalizing,  and  punctuation;  history  of  the 
United  States;  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  Constitu- 
tion of  Rhode  Island;  school  laws  of  Rhode  Island;  general 
history  and  chronology;  natural  history,  botany,  zoology,  chem- 
istry and  astronomy;  natural,  mental  and  moral  philosophy; 
arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry;  vocal  music;  the 
art  of  teaching,  including  the  history  and  progress  of  educa- 
tion; the  philosophy  of  teaching  and  discipline,  as  drawn  from 
the  nature  of  the  juvenile  mind,  and  the  application  of  these 
principles  under  the  ordinary  conditions  of  the  common  schools. 

Applicants  for  admission  must  pass  a  satisfactory  written  and 
oral  examination  in  reading,  writing,  spelling,  arithmetic, 
geography  and  English  grammar.  Studies  were  arranged,  so 
far  as  possible,  to  permit  (1)  a  thorough  review  of  elementary 
studies,  and  (2)  pursuit  of  branches  which  might  be  "  considered 
as  an  expansion  of  the  elementary  studies,  or  collateral  to  them," 
with  (3)  emphasis  upon  "the  art  of  teaching  and  its  modes." 
Every  subject  of  study  was  considered  "with  reference  to  the 
best  methods  of  teaching  it." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  distinctly  professional  sub- 
jects included  in  the  present  day  trivium — school  methods,  school 
management  and  school  law — required  of  all  candidates  for  pro- 
fessional certification,  constituted  the  trivium  of  professional 
courses  in  the  early  normal  school  curriculum,  and  in  the  first 
curriculum  of  the  present  Rhode  Island  Normal  School. 

The  first  Rhode  Island  public  normal  school  was  removed  to 
Bristol  in  1857,  and  closed  its  doors  in  1867.  The  present 
Rhode  Island  Normal  School  was  established  in  1871.  The 
course  of  study,  covering  two  years,  was  such  that  it  was 


472  PUBLIC  EDUCATION  IN  RHODE   ISLAND. 

expected  that  graduates  of  high  schools  might  complete  it  in 
one  year.  That  is  to  say,  the  professional  course  was  actually 
one  year.  The  studies  to  be  pursued  were:  Arithmetic, 
algebra,  geometry,  and  bookkeeping,  the  work  in  mathematics 
covering  three  of  four  terms;  grammar,  analysis  of  the  English 
language,  rhetoric  and  English  literature,  three  terms;  chem- 
istry, physiology  and  hygiene,  botany,  zoology,  astronomy, 
mineralogy,  geology,  and  natural  philosophy  (physics),  three 
terms;  geography  and  history,  two  terms  each.  The  fourth 
term  was  devoted  to  astronomy;  mental  and  moral  science,  in- 
cluding the  principles  and  art  of  reasoning;  theory  and  art  of 
teaching,  including  (1)  principles  and  methods  of  instruction, 
(2)  school  organization  and  government,  (3)  school  laws  of 
Rhode  Island;  and  the  Constitutions  of  Rhode  Island  and  the 
United  States.  Drawing  was  taught  with  special  reference  to  its 
use  in  common  schools.  Instruction  was  given  in  the  principles 
and  practice  of  vocal  music,  and  the  best  methods  of  teaching  the 
same.  General  exercises  were  given  daily  in  composition,  vocal 
culture,  object  lessons  and  in  gymnastics.  Latin,  Greek, 
French,  German  and  other  "advanced  studies,"  were  offered, 
but  must  not  be  pursued  "to  the  neglect  of  the  English  course." 
Applicants  for  admission  were  examined  in  reading,  spelling, 
penmanship,  arithmetic  to  involution,  geography,  grammar,  and 
(after  1872)  in  United  States  history.  Graduates  of  high 
schools  were  admitted  without  examination. 

In  the  catalogue  for  1877  the  list  of  subjects  in  the  course  of 
study  was  supplemented  by  a  paragraph  for  each  course  out- 
lining the  content  and  describing  methods  of  study  and  presen- 
tation. The  number  of  lessons  in  each  study  was  as  follows : 

Junior  A  class — Geometry,  100;  elementary  chemistry  and 
physics,  100;  physiology,  100;  language  (capitals,  punctuation, 
letter  writing,  and  composition),  100.  Junior  B  class — Arith- 
metic (through  decimals),  100;  drawing,  50;  lessons  on  plants, 
50;  lessons  on  animals,  20;  geography,  100;  reading  (articula- 


THE    SCHOOL   TEACHER.  473 

tion,  pitch,  force,  modes  of  teaching),  100;  grammar  (analysis 
and  parsing),  80.  Middle  class — Advanced  arithmetic,  100; 
algebra,  100;  rhetoric,  100;  English  literature,  100;  physical 
geography,  30;  history  (general  and  United  States),  70.  Senior 
class — Astronomy,  100;  physics,  100;  mineralogy  or  geology, 
20;  science  and  art  of  teaching  (1,  psychology;  2,  moral  science; 
3,  school  instruction;  4,  school  order  and  school  government), 
150.  Advanced  course — Latin,  Greek,  French,  German,  mathe- 
matics and  natural  science. 

The  description  of  the  course  in  the  science  and  art  of  teach- 
ing, important  in  this  study  because  of  its  bearing  upon  the 
content  of  educational  science  required  in  the  period,  follows: 

1.  Psychology.  Teaching  the  subject  inductively,  the  general 
outline  being  developed  from  the  facts  of  the  pupil's  conscious- 
ness.   Reading  and  analysis  of  subjects  included  under  psy- 
chology, as  presented  in  reference  and  textbooks.     Practice  in 
teaching  psychology,  by  members  of  the  class.    Class  discussions 
of  questions  suggested  by  reading  and  recitations.     .     .     . 

2.  Moral  science.     Objects:  To  gain  a  knowledge  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  morality  as  determined  by  the  mental 
and  moral  nature  of  man,  and  to  form  plans  for  giving  moral 
instruction,  by  object  lessons  to  young  pupils  and  precepts  to 
older  pupils.     .     .     . 

3.  School    instruction.     Modes    of    teaching    and    study. 
Course  of  study  arranged  for  the  primary  school,  for  the  in- 
termediate or  secondary  school,  and  for  the  grammar  school. 
Arranging  plans  for  teaching.     Teaching  exercises.     Discussion 
of  the  art  of  teaching,  occasioned  by  the  exercises  presented. 

4.  School  order  and  school  government.     Organization  of 
school.    Tardiness  and  absence.    School  records  and  returns. 
Necessity  of  school  government.     Modes  of  securing  the  ends 
of  school  government.     Causes  of  failure  in  school.     Govern- 
ment, external  to  the  teacher;    on  the  part  of  the  teacher. 
Conditions    of    success.      The    marking   system.      The    self- 
reportive  system.     Corporal  punishment.     Other  and  better 
modes  as  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  child.     Communica- 
tion during  study  hours.     Unconscious  influence  of  teacher. 
The  teacher's  relation  to  society.     ^Esthetics  in  the  schoolroom. 
Lessons  in  manners  and  morals. 


474  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

The  course  in  the  science  and  art  of  teaching  aimed  at 
thoroughness  and  completeness.  To  the  criticism  that  it 
occupied,  proportionately,  too  small  a  part  of  the  complete 
course  of  study,  the  answer  may  be  given  that  the  function  of  the 
normal  school  of  the  period  was  not  exclusively  professional. 
The  training  of  teachers  for  professional  service,  while  public 
high  schools  were  supported  in  a  comparatively  few  towns, 
must  include  instruction  in  the  content  of  academic  studies,  as 
well  as  professional  education. 

The  ''objects  of  the  school"  were  stated  in  1878,  as  follows: 

1.  To  aid  the  pupils,  and  to  prepare  them  to  aid  others  in 
securing  firm  physical  health. 

2.  The  selection  and  the  topical  arrangement  in  natural  and 
logical  order  of  the  objects  and  subjects  which  the  pupils  are  to 
teach  in  the  public  schools  of  the  state.     This  includes  modes 
of  using  textbooks  in  studying  and  in  teaching,  according  to  the 
topical  mode. 

3.  To  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  subject  matter  of  the  several 
branches  included  in  the  "course  of  study." 

4.  To  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  teaching  as 
determined  by  the  faculties  of  the  human  mind  and  the  laws  of 
their  development. 

5.  To  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  best  methods  of  teaching  and 
to  acquire  skill  in  the  use  of  methods,  by  teaching. 

6.  To  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  methods  of 
school  organization  and  government.     Since  self-control  is  the 
first  condition  of  the  power  to  govern  others,  the  pupils  of  the 
normal  school  are  trained  to  habits  of  self-control. 

7.  To  lead  those  who  are  to  teach  to  that  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  good  teaching  which  is  essential  to  the  genuine  en- 
thusiasm of  a  teacher. 

8.  The  formation  of  the  character  of  those  who  are  to  teach. 
This  object  in  its  moral  significance  is  the  most  important  object 
of  this  school. 

Variations  in  the  number  of  periods  allotted  to  subjects  and 
in  the  descriptive  paragraphs  were  made  from  time  to  time,  but 
the  course  in  the  science  and  art  of  teaching  remained  unchanged 
until  1881.  In  that  year  a  fifth  paragraph  was  added,  an- 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  475 

nouncing  an  opportunity  for  observation  and  practice  teaching, 
as  follows: 

"Observation  and  practice  in  teaching.  The  schools  of 
Providence  furnish  an  excellent  opportunity  for  members  of  the 
senior  class  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  government  and 
instruction  of  excellent  schools  of  every  grade.  The  arrange- 
ment made  by  the  superintendent  of  schools  and  teachers  of  the 
city,  by  which  members  of  the  senior  class  have  real  practice  in 
teaching,  is  a  great  service  to  them.  The  co-operation  of 
teachers  in  this  city  in  aiding  the  pupils  to  make  the  best  use  of 
their  opportunities  for  observation  and  practice  is  worthy  of 
special  commendation." 

The  course  was  lengthened  to  three  years  in  1884,  but  gradu- 
ates of  accredited  high  schools  were  admitted  to  the  senior 
class,  and  were  graduated  in  one  year.  Essentially  the  course 
had  been  remodelled;  the  first  two  years  constituted  a  prepara- 
tory course.  The  third-year  course  included :  Logic,  psychology, 
reading  methods,  ethics,  mineralogy,  science  methods,  drawing, 
arithmetic  methods,  pedagogy,  geology,  grammar  methods.  It 
was  almost  wholly  professional,  including  the  subjects  then 
considered  essential  to  prepare  a  high  school  graduate  for  teach- 
ing a  public  elementary  school. 

Mention  of  the  special  arrangement  for  observation  and 
practice  teaching  was  dropped  from  the  catalogue  after  1885. 
The  catalogue  was  rewritten  and  rearranged  in  1893.  An- 
nouncement of  the  opening  of  a  model  and  training  school  was 
made  as  follows: 

"A  model  and  training  school  has  been  established  in  con- 
nection with  the  normal  school,  and  will  be  opened  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  next  school  year.  It  is  one  of  the  Providence 
primary  schools,  and  is  located  at  the  corner  of  Benefit  and 
Halsey  streets,  about  one-half  mile  from  the  Normal  School.  It 
will  consist  of  three  model  and  five  training  rooms,  and  will 
embrace  the  first  five  years  of  school  work.  The  model  rooms 
are  for  observation,  and  students  of  the  normal  school  will  first 
study  systematically  the  work  carried  on  here.  This  will  give 
then  a  full  view  of  the  primary  course  hi  operation,  and 
opportunities  to  observe  children  under  instruction.  The 
training  rooms  are  for  practice  under  the  direction  and  criticism 


476  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

of  skilled  training  teachers.  Each  student  of  the  Normal  School 
during  the  last  year  of  his  course  will  spend  a  considerable 
portion  of  her  time  in  practice,  and  a  part  of  the  time  will  have 
actual  charge  of  a  room." 

When  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  removed  to  the 
present  location  in  1898,  the  lower  floor  of  the  new  building  was 
occupied  by  an  observation  and  training  school.  Since  then 
the  demand  for  enlarged  facilities  has  been  met  by  establishing 
training  schools  in  town  and  city  public  school  buildings  in 
various  parts  of  the  state.  The  characteristic  arrangement 
consists  of  two  public  schoolrooms  under  a  critic  teacher,  who 
is  a  member  of  the  normal  school  faculty.  Two  normal  school 
students  are  directly  in  charge  of  the  schoolrooms,  but  under  the 
instruction  and  guidance  of  the  critic  teacher,  who  divides  her 
time  between  the  two  schoolrooms.  Each  student  is  respon- 
sible for  the  instruction  of  the  pupils  of  one  schoolroom,  teaching 
approximately  half  time  under  the  observation  of  the  critic,  and 
half  time  alone  with  her  pupils.  The  critic  supervises  the  work 
of  the  student-apprentice  teachers,  criticises  it,  points  out  faults, 
and  suggests  means  and  methods  for  improvement.  The  train- 
ing given  the  student-apprentice  teacher  is  thorough,  and 
the  student-apprentice  teacher  must  prove  her  ability  to  teach 
and  govern  her  school  before  she  may  be  recommended  for  a 
diploma.  Practice  teaching  in  the  observation  school,  and 
teacher  training  in  the  training  schools  have  been  developed 
so  thoroughly  as  to  give  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School 
acknowledged  leadership. 

The  general  course  of  study  has  been  remodelled  from  time 
to  time.  When  the  maintenance  of  public  high  schools  or  the 
provision  of  facilities  for  high  school  education  was  made  a  man- 
datory town  obligation,  the  normal  school  was  relieved  of 
responsibility  for  offering  courses  parallelling  the  work  of  public 
high  schools  for  students  coming  to  it  from  towns  which  pre- 
viously had  supported  only  elementary  schools.  Consequently 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  477 

the  preparatory  course  was  eliminated  as  early  as  possible,  a 
measure  hastened  in  some  part  by  the  necessity  of  finding  accom- 
modations for  larger  numbers  of  students  desiring  only  profes- 
sional instruction. 

The  abandonment  of  the  preparatory  course  permitted  an 
enrichment  and  extension  of  the  professional  course.  From 
being  a  course  that  a  high  school  graduate  might  cover  in  one 
year  of  attendance,  the  professional  course  now  covers  three 
years,  and  normal  school  graduation  in  Rhode  Island  stands  for 
seven  years  of  school  attendance  and  preparation  for  profes- 
sional service,  beyond  graduation  from  an  elementary  school. 

The  most  recent  catalogue  says:  "The  purpose  of  the  school 
is  to  provide  efficient  teachers  for  the  children  of  the  state.  For 
this  important  work  the  school  employs  four  main  agencies : 

1.  The  normal  department,  for  the  study  of  educational 
theory  and  of  the  subject-matter  taught  in  the  public  elementary 
schools. 

2.  The  observation  division  of  the  training  department,  for 
providing  opportunity  to  see  experienced  teachers  at  work  with 
classes  of  children  such  as  are  found  in  other  public  schools. 
This  department  is  also  used  to  some  extent  for  experimental 
and  demonstration  work.     It  is  here  that  the  normal  students 
make  their  first  attempts  at  teaching  groups  of  children. 

3.  The  practice  division  of  the  training  department,  for  ex- 
perience in  teaching  in  public  schools  under  the  guidance  of 
skilled  critics. 

4.  The  extension  division,  for  those  who  are  already  teach- 
ing, whether  normal  graduates  or  not.     Under  this  heading  are 
included  the  regular  Saturday  lecture  course,  afternoon  and 
Saturday  classes,  exhibitions  of  books  and  materials  and  of 
children's  work,  lecture  courses  by  normal  school  teachers  in 
various  parts  of  the  state,  and  such  other  aid  as  may  be  given 
by  a  corps  of  specialists  in  education. 

The  course  of  study  is  arranged  under  several  general  titles, 
as  follows:* 

Education:  1.  Introduction  to  the  study  of  education. 
2.  The  child  and  the  school.  3.  Elementary  psychology. 

*Review  courses  for  students  conditioned  on  entrance  are  usually  numbered  one,  and 
explain  the  apparent  inconsistency  in  numbering  courses  in  arithmetic,  English,  and 
drawing. 


478  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

4.  Educational  psychology.  5.  Observation.  6.  Pedagogy. 
7.  Rhode  Island  school  law  and  administration.  8.  History 
of  modern  elementary  education.  9.  Practice  teaching  in  the 
school  of  observation.  10.  Conference.  11.  Teaching  in  the 
training  schools.  12.  Psychology  of  school  subjects. 

History:    Two  courses  in  methods. 

English:  2,5,6.  Oral  reading.  3.  Oral  and  written  com- 
position. 4.  Grammar.  7.  Literature.  8.  English  method. 

Science:  land  2.  General  science.  3.  Botany  and  physi- 
ology. 4.  Zoology.  5.  School  gardening.  6.  Nature  study. 

Geography:    Two  courses  in  methods. 

Arithmetic:  2.  Principles  and  processes  in  arithmetic.  3. 
Methods  in  the  teaching  of  arithmetic.  4.  Advanced  arith- 
metic. 

Art:  3,  5.  Elementary  drawing  and  art  appreciation.  4. 
Hand  work.  6.  Methods  in  art  teaching.  7.  Applied  peda- 
gogy in  art. 

Music:  2.  Sight  singing  and  theory  of  music.  3.  Methods 
of  teaching  public  school  music.  4.  Practice  in  teaching  public 
school  music. 

Household  arts:  1.  Sewing  for  teachers.  2.  Cookery. 
3.  Domestic  arts.  . 

Physical  education:  1  and  2.  Practical  work  and  demon- 
strations. 3.  Theory  of  physical  education.  4.  Practice 
teaching  of  physical  education. 

Penmanship:    Practical  methods  of  teaching. 

Library  science:  Practical  instruction  in  library  methods, 
care  of  books  and  reference  books. 

Candidates  for  admission  must  be  graduates  of  public  high 
schools  or  approved  secondary  schools,  and  must  pass  entrance 
examinations  in  arithmetic,  English,  history,  geography  and 
drawing,  unless  the  candidate  presents  a  certificate  that  he  has 
completed  successfully  an  approved  review  course  during  the 
high  school  course.  Special  review  courses  are  maintained  for 
those  who  fail  in  an  entrance  examination.  Failure  in  two 
examinations  disqualifies  the  candidate  until  the  next  examina- 
tions are  given. 

The  Rhode  Island  Normal  School  has  been  the  chief  agency 
for  teacher  training  in  Rhode  Island.  In  recent  years  other 
facilities  for  training  teachers  have  been  developed  at  Rhode 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  479 

Island  State  College,  at  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  and  at 
Brown  University. 

The  state  has  undertaken,  as  part  of  its  responsibility  for 
supporting  free  public  education,  the  training,  at  its  expense, 
of  those  who  are  to  become  teachers  in  the  public  'schools.  It 
has  improved  teaching  by  establishing  minimum  standards  for 
certification  or  license  to  teach,  and  by  providing  the  means  of 
attaining  the  standards.  Moreover,  it  has  undertaken  to  im- 
prove the  qualifications  of  teachers  in  service  (1)  by  extension 
courses  at  the  normal  school,  (2)  by  the  maintenance  of  a  sum- 
mer school  at  the  normal  school,  (3)  by  teachers'  institutes,  (4) 
by  providing  educational  addresses  and  lectures  for  meetings  of 
teachers,  (5)  by  maintaining  a  professional  library  of  educational 
books  for  loans  to  teachers,  and  (6)  by  publishing  and  dis- 
tributing educational  books,  pamphlets,  circulars  and  tracts. 

THE  TEACHER'S  "CONTRACT." 

While  the  word  "contract,"  in  its  exact  legal  meaning  of  a 
mutual  agreement,  is  a  misnomer  when  applied  to  the  relation 
of  the  teacher  to  his  employer,  the  word  may  be  used  in  a  special 
and  limited  sense  as  the  best  that  the  English  language  affords 
for  concise  expression  of  the  idea  of  the  relation.  The  relation 
of  the  teacher  to  the  public  school  system  is  not  and  may  not  be 
determined  exclusively  by  mutual  agreement  or  contract.  The 
state  by  statute  and  by  other  school  law  has  established  certain 
elements  of  the  relation,  and  public  policy,  as  well  as  the  law, 
forbids  a  mutual  agreement  that  attempts  to  waive  rights 
reserved  to  either  party  by  law,  or  that  attempts  to  set  up  rights 
that  in  their  enforcement  might  violate  statutory  or  other  school 
law,  or  public  policy. 

The  school  act  of  1800  provided  "that  the  town  councils  of 
the  several  towns  shall  have  the  government  of  the  town  and 
the  district  schools  in  their  respective  towns."  The  town 
council  in  Providence  was  the  body  actually  in  control  of  the 


480  PUBLIC    EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

free  public  schools,  nominally  under  the  management  of  the  town 
school  committee,  and  employed  and  dismissed  teachers.  The 
act  of  1828  placed  public  schools  under  control  of  school  com- 
mittees, with  "power  to  make  all  necessary  rules  and  regula- 
tions, which  they  may  deem  expedient,  for  the  good  government 
of  the  public  schools  in  their  respective  towns,"  and  "to  appoint 
all  the  schoolmasters  or  schoolmistresses  to  be  employed  in 
teaching  the  schools,  taking  care  that  such  masters  and  mis- 
tresses are  qualified  for  the  task,"  and  "to  dismiss  a  schoolmaster 
or  schoolmistress  in  case  of  inability  or  mismanagement."  The 
revised  school  law  of  1839  read  as  follows:  "The  school  com- 
mittee shall  appoint  all  instructors  and  instructresses,  taking 
care  that  they  be  of  good  moral  character,  temperate  and  other- 
wise well  qualified  for  the  office;  and  may  dismiss  said  in- 
structors or  instructresses  in  case  of  inability  or  misconduct." 
The  power  to  employ  the  teacher  was  given  in  1845  to  school 
district  trustees,  whose  duty  it  was  "to  employ  one  or  more 
qualified  teachers  for  every  fifty  scholars  in  average  daily 
attendance."  The  power  to  dismiss  the  teacher  was  reserved 
for  the  school  committee,  to  be  exercised  through  the  com- 
mittee's right  "  to  annul  the  certificates  of  such  teachers  as  shall 
prove,  on  trial,  disqualified,  or  who  will  not  conform  to  the 
regulations  adopted  by  the  committee."  The  obvious  neglect 
to  provide  for  dismissal  when  the  teacher  held  a  certificate  issued 
otherwise  than  by  the  committee  was  met  by  the  suggestion 
that  the  school  committee  apply  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Schools  or  the  county  inspector  to  revoke  the  certificate  of  a 
teacher  who  had  proved  unsatisfactory,  and  was  remedied  in 
1851  by  a  law  providing  that  "The  school  committee  may 
dismiss  any  teacher,  by  whosoever  examined,  who  shall  refuse 
to  conform  to  the  regulations  by  them  made,  or  for  other  just 
cause."* 

*The  school  committee  could  not  delegate  the  power  to  annul  a  teacher's  certificate. 
Randall's  Appeal,  1853.  The  school  committee's  right  to  dismiss  a  teacher  holding  a  county 
certificate  was  sustained.  Potter's  Appeal,  1855.  The  school  committee's  right  to  annul 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  481 

The  school  committee  was  given  the  rights  by  an  act  passed 
in  1857,  "after  five  days  notice  in  writing"  to  "annul  the  cer- 
tificates of  such  as  prove  unqualified  or  will  not  conform  to  the 
regulations  of  the  committee,"  and  to  "dismiss  any  teacher  who 
shall  refuse  to  conform  to  the  regulations  by  them  made,  or  for 
other  just  cause."  After  1872  the  school  committee  could 
dismiss  only  after  "reasonable  notice  and  a  hearing  of  the 
party." 

The  power  to  annul  the  teacher's  certificate  remained  un- 
changed in  the  letter  of  the  statute,  although  the  power  to 
certificate  teachers  was  no  longer  exclusively  a  function  of  the 
school  committee  after  the  establishment  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Normal  School  in  1871.  No  occasion  arose  for  testing  the  com- 
mittee's questionable  right  to  annul  a  certificate  granted  by  the 
Trustees  of  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School.  When  the  State 
Board  of  Education  was  given  exclusive  power  to  examine  and 
license  teachers  the  committee's  right  to  annul  certificates 
probably  was  abolished  through  operation  of  a  general  clause 
in  the  act  of  1898  repealing  all  acts  and  parts  of  acts  incon- 
sistent therewith.  All  doubt  was  removed  when  the  statutes 
were  revised  in  1909. 

As  the  law  stands  now  the  State  Board  of  Education  ex- 
amines and  certificates  teachers,  and  may  annul  any  certificate 
"after  due  notice  to  the  hold*-  thereof,  and  an  opportunity  for  a 
hearing  if  desired."  The  school  commit^  «~o-aees  and  hires 
teachers,  and  may  "on  reasonable  notice  and  a  hearing  01  s*~u^ 
teacher,  dismiss  any  teacher  for  refusal  to  conform  to  the  reg- 
ulations by  them  made,  or  for  other  just  cause." 

If"  the  teacher's  relation  to  the  public  school  system  be  ex- 
amined from  the  viewpoint  of  contract,  the  power  to  engage  the 
•  teacher  may  be  called  the  right  to  enter  into  a  contract,  and 

a  certificate  after  a  hearing  and  for  just  cause  was  sustained.  Appeal  of  Emor  Smith,  1855 . 
Out  of  the  last  mentioned  appeal  came  the  Supreme  Court  decision  that  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  after  his  decision  has  been  approved  by  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
may  not  reopen  an  appeal  and  grant  a  rehearing.  Appeal  of  Smith,  4  R.  I.  590. 


482  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE    ISLAND. 

the  power  to  dismiss  the  teacher  may  be  called  the  right  to 
terminate  the  contract.  Both  are  essential  to  complete  free- 
dom of  contract,  and  the  law  recognizes  a  general  right  to  termi- 
nate a  contract  by  making  the  right  to  "specific  performance" 
an  "extraordinary  remedy."  Since  1845  the  right  to  enter  into 
a  contract  has  been  divided,  and  the  right  to  dismiss,  until  the 
abolition  of  districts,  was  exercised  by  the  school  committee, 
which  was  not  a  party  to  the  original  engagement.  If  the  rela- 
tion of  the  teacher  to  the  public  school  system  has  been  con- 
tractual since  1845,  therefore,  we  are  dealing  with  a  peculiar 
sort  of  contract,  particularly  when  it  is  remembered  that  the 
school  committee's  right  to  certificate  teachers  carried  with  it 
the  right  to  limit  the  certificate  to  a  prescribed  territory  or 
school,  and  the  right  to  limit  the  certificate  in  time,  rights  which 
might  be  exercised  effectually  to  control  the  contract  to  hire. 
So  the  State  Board  of  Education  may  limit  its  certificates,  and 
does  actually  issue  special  certificates  for  particular  employ- 
ment and  for  limited  periods  of  time.  Since  1845,  therefore, 
the  teacher  has  been  obligated  to  two  parties  representing  the 
public  school  system,  the  party  granting  certificates  or  licenses 
to  teach,  and  the  party  actually  making  the  engagement  for 
service.  So  also,  the  teacher  sometimes  has  been  compelled 
to  deal  with  two  parties  who  exercised  an  eftV°*ive  power  to 
terminate  the  teacher's  employment,  trough  the  right  to  annul 
the  teacher's  certifi™**^  or  to  dismiss  the  teacher.  Against 
arbr*—^  exercise  of  either  power  to  terminate  the  contract  the 
law  has  aimed  to  protect  the  teacher  by  specifying  the  reasons 
warranting  annulment  or  dismissal,  and  giving  the  teacher 
reasonable  notice,  an  opportunity  for  a  hearing,*  and  an  appeal  to 
the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools.  A  relation  so  intricate  may 
be  studied  to  better  advantage,  however,  entirely  aside  from  con- 
tract. From  this  point  of  view,  the  teacher  becomes  a  public 
official  engaged  in  a  public  service,  exercising  certain  definite 

*  A  hearing  includes  the  right  to  introduce  testimony  of  witnesses  other  than  the  teacher. 
Appeal  of  Brown,  1917. 


THE    SCHOOL   TEACHER.  483 

rights,  undertaking  certain  definite  obligations  and  respon- 
sibilities, bound  by  the  law  to  perform  certain  definite  duties, 
and  entitled  to  certain  definite  rights.  Enlightened  public 
policy  has  established  this  professional  and  legal  status  for 
the  teacher  in  pursuance  of  a  definite  aim  to  improve  public 
schools.  The  rights  and  duties  of  the  teacher  may  be  sum- 
marized briefly  as  follows : 

1.  The  teacher  must  hold  a  certificate  issued  by  or  under  the 
authority  of  the  State  Board  of  Education.     No  member  of  a 
school  committee  is  eligible  for  employment  as  teacher,  principal, 
assistant,  supervisor  or  superintendent  in  any  school  under  the 
control  of  his  committee.* 

2.  The  teacher  must  be  employed  by  the  school  committee-f 

3.  The  employment  must  be  for  the  school  year,  unless  the 
teacher  is  employed  as  a  substitute,  or  to  fill  a  vacancy,  or  to 
complete  an  unfinished  term,  or  to  fill  a  vacancy  temporarily. 

In  this  connection,  a  form  of  teacher's  contract  reserving  to 
the  school  committee  the  right  to  terminate  the  engagement  on 
notice  seems  to  be  illegal.  The  effect  of  the  contract  would  be 
to  give  the  committee  a  right  to  dismiss  the  teacher  for  other 
than  the  "just  cause"  stipulated  in  the  law,  and  without  the 
hearing  which  the  law  requires.  Sound  public  policy  is  violated 
by  frequent  changes  of  teachers. 

In  some  towns  the  teacher  is  appointed  first  for  a  probationary 
period  and  may  expect  reappointment  from  year  to  year  during 
satisfactory  service. 

4.  The  employment  ma>  ^t  be  at  a  salary  less  than 
per  year.J 

The  teacher's  right  to  salary  is  not  contingent  upon  mro 
tinuance  of  school  or  upon  the  sufficiency  of  school  funds.  § 

5.  The  teacher's  duties,  prescribed  by  statute:** 

(a)     To  keep  the  school  register  and  make  reports  re- 
quested by  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. 

*Chapter  68,  Sections  1  and  7,  General  Laws,  1909. 
tChapter  67,  Section  9;  Chapter  73,  Section  6,  General  Laws,  1909. 
^Chapter  458,  Public  Laws,  1909. 
§Hardy  vs.  Lee,  36  Rhode  Island,  302. 
**School  Law  of  Rhode  Island,  1914,  page  93. 


484  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

(b)  To  keep  a  record  of  pupils  vaccinated. 

(c)  To  implant  and  cultivate  in  the  minds  of  all  children 
committed  to  his  care  the  principles  of  morality  and  virtue. 

(d)  To  conform  to  the  rules  and  regulations  prescribed 
by  the  school  committee. 

(e)  To  prepare  suitable  programs  for  school  holidays. 

6.  The  teacher's  certificate  may  be  annulled  by  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  after  notice  and  a  hearing,  or  the  teacher 
may  be  dismissed  by  the  school  committee  after  reasonable 
notice  and  a  hearing,  for  refusal  to  conform  to  rules  and  regula- 
tions, or  for  other  just  cause. 

THE  STATE  AND  THE  TEACHER. 

The  state  educates  the  teacher  at  public  expense.     The  state 
aims  to  improve  the  qualifications  of  teachers  in  service  by 
providing  many  and  varied  opportunities  for  more  professional 
education  and  training  than  the  minimum  requirements  for 
certification.     The  state  has  established  a  legal  status  for  the 
teacher  as  a  public  officer,  and  protects  the  teacher  in  his  em- 
ployment.     The  state  has  aimed  to   improve  the   economic 
status  of  the  profession  of  education.     The  largest  annual 
appropriation  for  public  education  is  apportioned  for  use  ex- 
clusively for  payment  of  teachers'  salaries.     The  statute  law  pre- 
scribes a  minimum  annual  salary  for  teachers,  and  the  state  has 
undertaken  a  portion  of  the  burden  of  maintaining  the  minimum 
salary.     Certification  unquestionably  has  improved  the  profes- 
sional status  of  the  teacher,  and  every  improvement  in  the 
professional  status  of  the  teacher  has  an  effect,  ultimately,  upon 
fho  ooo^v/mic  status  of  the  teacher.     The  average  salary  of  the 
public  school  teacher  has  advanced  rapidly  since  the  State 
Board  of  Education  was  given  exclusive  authority  to  license 
teachers.     In  the  past  decade  the  average  salary  has  been 
increased  more  than  $100.     No  state  has  been  more  generous 
than  Rhode  Island  in  the  matter  of  pensions  for  teachers. 
Rhode  Island  maintains  the  only  statewide  teachers'  pension 
supported  exclusively  and  solely  by  the  state.     No  munici- 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  485 

pality  has  been  asked  or  is  permitted  to  contribute  to  the 
teachers'  pension;  no  teacher  has  been  taxed,  or  assessed,  or 
invited,  or  permitted  to  contribute  even  a  penny  to  the  teachers' 
pension.  The  teachers'  pension  is  granted  under  general  law, 
and  rules  and  regulations  made  by  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, after  long  service  in  the  profession  of  education,  or  after 
disability  rendering  the  teacher  unable  to  render  efficient  ser- 
vice. As  it  affects  the  economic  status  of  the  teacher,  the 
pension  may  be  viewed  as  a  deferred  salary,  payment  of  which, 
after  years  of  service,  relieves  the  teacher  of  some  part  of  the 
burden  in  earlier  years  of  making  provision  by  saving  for  the 
years  when  old  age  tends  to  make  him  less  efficient  in  a  system  of 
schools,  which  must  from  time  to  time  be  readjusted  to  meet  the 
ever  changing  demands  of  the  social  environment.  The  state, 
however,  has  justified  the  pension,  as  it  has  other  measures  for 
the  improvement  of  teachers,  from  the  viewpoint  of  public 
advantage.  Thus  higher  salaries  are  justified,  because  better 
salaries  tend  to  attract  to  the  profession  those  who  are  more 
capable,  whereas  a  low  scale  of  salaries  would  tend  to  diminish 
the  probability  that  capable  persons  would  enter  the  profession. 
Education  of  teachers  at  public  expense  is  justified  by  the  fact 
that  private  education  of  teachers  has  failed  to  meet  public 
requirements.  Every  measure  that  protects  the  teacher  in 
his  employment  ultimately  is  for  public  advantage,  for  the  same 
general  reason  that  an  employment  that  is  not  secure  is  not 
likely  to  attract  those  who  are  provident.  The  pension  may  be 
justified  as  a  measure  tending  to  improve  the  economic  status 
of  the  profession  and  making  it  more  attractive,  an\i  eOooJb»ooima_ 
it  permits  the  state,  in  a  way  entirely  worthy  and  honorable  to 
itself,  to  remove  from  active  service  those  teachers  who  are  no 
longer  able  to  respond  readily  and  to  adapt  themselves  to  the 
changes  made  necessary  by  the  development  of  the  social  func- 
tions and  responsibilities  of  the  school.  It  is  entirely  creditable 
to  Rhode  Island  that  for  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century  the 


486  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

state  has  recognized  the  importance  of  the  educational  principle 
that  counsels  constant  effort  to  improve  the  teacher  as  the  most 
important  element  in  the  school,  and  that  the  state  has  pursued 
a  public  educational  policy  consistent  with  this  principle.  The 
fruition  of  educational  statesmanship  has  been  the  creation  and 
maintenance  of  a  teaching  personnel  nowhere  surpassed  when 
tested  by  preparation  for  professional  service,  by  efficiency  in 
the  practice  of  teaching,  by  alertness  and  general  willingness  to 
undertake  measures  for  further  advancement,  and  by  loyalty 
to  the  school  as  the  state's  most  significant  institution  for  the 
safeguarding  of  ideals  of  democratic  citizenship.  The  teachers, 
acting  through  two  representative  associations,  have  adopted  a 
code  of  professional  ethics,  and  teachers  are  bound  by  a  pledge 
of  loyalty  and  service. 

ETHICS  OF  THE  PROFESSION.* 

The  watchword  of  the  profession  is  service.  No  teacher  can 
hope  to  do  his  best  without  the  spirit  of  self-forgetfulness  and 
self-sacrifice.  Nothing  is  more  unprofessional  than  the  prefer- 
ence of  one's  own  ease  and  comfort  to  the  welfare  of  the  school 
and  the  pupils.  Rather,  professional  obligation  requires  that 
one  give  a  large  measure  of  his  strength  and  time  to  his  pupils. 
He  must  never  measure  the  extent  of  his  service  in  terms  of 
money  rewards  or  material  advancement.  A  teacher  should 
always  cherish  the  ideal  of  the  dignity  of  his  profession.  He 
should  seek  public  support  and  sympathy  only  through  sane, 
conservative  and  rational  appeals  to  an  intelligent  community. 

Loyalty  to  his  superiors  should  invariable  characterize  the 
words  and  actions  of  a  subordinate  everywhere.  As  long  as  one 
remains  a  member  of  a  school  organization,  loyalty  to  the 
interests  of  the  school  and  poauuunity  demands  the  entire  sup- 
pression of  irroopcmsiuie  criticism  of  the  institution,  its  policies 
and  its  officers.  Especially  to  be  avoided  and  condemned  are 
inciting,  encouraging,  or  tolerating  antagonisms  among  pupils 
toward  officers  or  policies. 

A  practice  to  be  unsparingly  condemned  is  that  of  giving  up 
with  scant  ceremony  for  the  sake  of  a  better  offer  elsewhere  a 

*Extracts  from  "Principles  of  Ethics  and  Comity  for  the  Profession  of  Education" 
adopted  by  the  Barnard  Club  and  endorsed  by  the  Rhode  Island  Association  of  Women 
Teachers,  1915. 


THE    SCHOOL   TEACHER.  487 

position  that  has  been  unconditionally  accepted.  A  teacher 
who  definitely  accepts  a  position  should  perform  the  duties  of 
that  position  during  the  term  of  engagement  unless  it  is  dis- 
tinctly stated,  as  a  part  of  the  engagement,  that  he  may  leave 
at  any  time  after  proper  notice. 

A  clear  release  from  previous  or  conflicting  engagements 
should  be  considered  an  indispensable  prerequisite  for  eligibility 
to  subsequent  employment.  It  is  clearly  allowable  for  a  teacher, 
with  due  consideration  for  the  interests  of  the  school  with 
which  he  is  at  the  time  engaged,  to  ask  for  a  release,  as  a  matter 
of  kindness  and  courtesy  on  the  part  of  his  employers,  submit- 
ting with  due  loyalty  and  good  faith  to  the  decision  of  the  em- 
ploying authority.  If  possible,  without  consequences  exception- 
ally injurious  to  the  schools  concerned,  loyalty  and  professional 
comity  will  prompt  school  officials  to  release,  as  soon  as  their 
positions  can  be  satisfactorily  filled,  teachers  who  can  materially 
better  themselves  elsewhere. 

Since  our  system  of  free  public  education  is  a  division  of  the 
people's  government,  and  since  all  school  officers  and  teachers 
are  public  agents,  to  whom  the  people  have  entrusted  the  great 
public  interest  of  education,  it  behooves  the  teacher  or  officer, 
in  loyalty  to  the  service  in  which  he  accepts  an  appoint- 
ment, to  be  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  fundamental  principles 
of  our  democracy,  which  are  the  basal  principles  of  school 
administration.  He  should  be  thoroughly  familiar  with  school 
law,  as  the  source  of  his  powers  and  duties  as  a  teacher  and  as 
the  basis  of  professional  ethics  in  his  relations  as  a  public  servant. 
In  assuming  an  appointment  he  obligates  himself,  legally  as 
well  as  morally,  to  understand  the  public  will  as  expressed  in  law 
and  custom,  to  be  faithful  to  that  will,  and  to  execute  it  in- 
telligently. 

Teachers  should  set  for  themselves  a  progressively  higher 
standard  of  knowledge  of  their  subjects.  While  no  teacher 
can  expect  to  have  absolute  knowledge  of  his  subjects,  what- 
ever unqualified  statement  he  makes  should  be  the  exact 
truth.  Accurate  scholarship  is  a  prime  factor  in  com- 
manding respect  aud  confidence,  in  securing  attention,  and 
in  furnishing  an  ideal  for  tbo  class.  Furthermore,  the  teacher 
should  keep  constantly  before  nis  mma  me  iaeaT"oT  iseir— 
improvement.  He  should  always  have  the  attitude  of  a 
learner.  He  should  desire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject- 
matter  that  he  is  called  upon  to  teach,  and  each  year  he  should 
add  to  his  stock  of  information  in  his  own  and  in  related  sub- 
jects.  He  should,  however,  realize  that  the  scholarly  ideal 
includes  more  than  a  mastery  of  subject-matter.  He  should 
seek  to  know  the  minds  of  his  pupils;  he  should  aim  to  keep  in 
touch  with  the  advanced  thought  in  his  profession;  he  should 


488  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

be  aware  of  the  tendencies,  modifications,  and  changes  in  the 
field  of  education  as  a  whole,  and  he  should  have  intimate 
knowledge  of  conditions  in  his  own  special  field.  For  these 
reasons,  every  teacher  should  be  a  subscriber  to  at  least  one 
professional  journal  of  recognized  worth,  should  read  a  few  of 
the  most  important  books  on  education,  including  those  appear- 
ing each  year,  should  visit  the  classes  of  other  teachers,  and 
should  at  as  frequent  intervals  as  practicable  attend  teachers' 
meetings,  and  enroll  in  summer  or  extension  courses  in  normal 
schools,  colleges,  or  universities. 

Teachers  should  not  consider  themselves  a  class  set  apart 
simply  to  instruct  children  from  nine  o'clock  until  four.  The 
teacher's  function  is  the  making  of  good  citizens.  The  growing 
tendency  towards  a  social  and  civic  life  in  each  neighborhood 
centering  in  the  school  building  will  afford  teachers  an  oppor- 
tunity for  participating  in  social  and  civic  service.  Principals 
and  teachers  should  encourage  the  establishment  of  local  groups 
and  associations  of  youths  and  adults — recreational,  educational 
and  civic — at  the  school  buildings  for  the  purpose  of  creating  and 
extending  an  active,  intelligent  and  progressive  local  citizenship, 
alive  to  all  the  projects  and  problems  of  the  life  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, thus  forming  an  organized  and  effective  part  of  the  public 
opinion  of  the  whole  community.  The  teacher  who  appreciates 
the  broadening  influences  of  these  activities  on  his  vocation  in 
its  relation  to  the  children  and  his  duty  to  the  parents  and  state 
will  have  a  higher  conception  of  education.  The  educational 
process  is  not  simply  formal,  but  largely  inspirational,  affecting 
the  children's  thoughts  and  emotions  in  larger  ways,  initiating 
feelings  and  tendencies  toward  future  actions,  reaching  beyond 
the  home,  into  the  workshop  and  market  place,  into  social 
service  and  active  citizenship. 

School  and  home  are  natural  allies  for  the  education  of  the 
public's  children.  Teachers  and  parents  are  joint-teachers  of 
our  children  and  youth  as  citizens  of  the  state.  Teachers,  with 
school  officers,  should  give  due  recognition  to  the  interests  and 
rights  of  the  home  and  seek  to  establish  friendly  relations  and 
intelligent  co-operation  between  parents  and  themselves.  Pub- 
lic education  is  maintained  for  the  sate  of  the  public,  but  it 
regards  nriyate  and  individu**1  interests.  The  best  way  to 
promote  public  welfare  through  education  is  to  provide  a  school 
education  for  the  individual  needs  of  pupils. 

The  highest  duties  of  the  teacher  center  in  his  pupils.  His  is 
the  work  that  makes  or  mars  the  efficiency  of  our  school  organi- 
zation. His  service  to  his  pupils,  which  is  a  service  to  commu- 
nity and  state,  is  the  real  honor  of  the  profession  of  education. 
Given  ample  authority  by  law  to  govern  his  school,  the  teacher 
directs  its  activities  as  a  wise  counselor  and  friendly  guide. 


THE   SCHOOL   TEACHER.  489 

Placed  in  authority  over  his  pupils,  he  may  become  to  each  a 
kind  and  helpful  friend,  not  only  an  instructor  of  truth,  but  also 
an  inspirer  of  life,  teaching  them  the  civic  virtues  of  freedom, 
fairness,  and  fraternity.  As  instructor  he  is  to  lead  the  learner 
into  new  fields  of  truth,  as  inspirer  he  is  to  encourage  the  pupil 
and  stimulate  his  self-effort,  as  governor  he  is  to  temper  justice 
with  mercy,  as  protector  he  is  to  guard  the  rights  of  pupils,  and 
as  teacher  he  is  to  energize  worthy  character.  In  his  relations 
to  his  pupils,  the  teacher  should  recognize  his  professional 
obligation  in  the  statutory  injunction,  "Every  teacher  shall 
aim  to  implant  and  cultivate  in  the  minds  of  all  chil- 
dren committed  to  his  care  the  principles  of  morality  and 
virtue."  The  teacher  is  charged  with  this  duty  by  the  public 
will,  expressed  in  a  law  that  is  even  silent  on  the  question  of 
subjects  to  be  taught. 

THE  TEACHER'S  PLEDGE  OF  LOYALTY. 

Every  teacher  applying  for  certification  is  required  by  the 
State  Board  of  Education  to  subscribe  to  the  following  oath  or 
pledge  of  loyalty : 

I,  as  a  teacher  and  citizen,  pledge  allegiance  to  the  United 
States  of  America,  to  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  and  to  the 
American  public  school  system. 

I  solemnly  promise  to  support  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
Nation  and  State,  to  acquaint  myself  with  the  laws  of  the  State 
relating  to  public  education,  and  the  regulations  and  instruc- 
tions of  my  official  superiors,  and  faithfully  to  carry  them  out. 

I  further  promise  to  protect  the  school  rights  of  my  pupils,  to 
conserve  the  democracy  of  school  citizenship,  to  honor  public 
education  as  a  principle  of  free  government,  to  respect  the  pro- 
fession of  education  as  public  service,  and  to  observe  its  ethical 
principles  and  rules  of  professional  conduct. 

I  pledge  myself  to  neglect  no  opportunity  to  teach  the  chil- 
dren committed  to  my  care  loyalty  to  Nation  and  State,  honor 
to  the  Flag,  obedience  to  law  and  government,  respect  for  public 
servants  entrusted  for  the  time  being  with  the  functions  of 
government,  faith  in  government  by  the  people,  fealty  to  the 
civic  principles  of  freedom,  equal  rights  and  human  brother- 
hood, and  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to  render  service  for  the 
common  welfare. 

I  shall  endeavor  to  exemplify  in  my  own  life  and  conduct  in 
and  out  of  school  the  social  virtues  of  fairness,  kindliness  and 
service  as  ideals  of  good  citizenship. 


490  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

I  affirm,  in  recognition  of  my  official  obligation,  that,  though 
as  a  citizen  I  have  the  right  of  personal  opinion,  as  a  teacher  of 
the  public's  children  I  have  no  right,  either  in  school  hours  or 
in  the  presence  of  my  pupils  out  of  school  hours,  to  express 
opinions  that  conflict  with  honor  to  country,  loyalty  to  American 
ideals,  and  obedience  to  and  respect  for  the  laws  of  Nation  and 
State. 

In  all  this  I  pledge  my  sacred  honor  and  subscribe  to  a  solemn 
oath  that  I  will  faithfully  perform  to  the  best  of  my  ability  all 
the  duties  of  the  office  of  teacher  in  the  public  schools. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Addeman,  J.  M.  Index  to  Acts  and  Resolves,  1663-1873. 
Providence,  1875. 

Aldrich,  Edwin.  Speech  on  the  Setting  off  of  Woonsocket  from 
Smithfield — in  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  4, 
1870.  Rider  collection. 

Allyn,  Robert.    Special  Report  on  Truancy.    Schedules. 

Angell,  Frank  C.    Annals  of  Centredale.    Central  Falls,  1909. 

Angell,  Oliver.  Report  on  Operation  of  School  Law.  Pam- 
phlet in  Rider  collection. 

Arnold,  S.  G.  History  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions. Vol.  1,  1636-1700.  Providence,  1859.  Vol.  2, 
1700-1790.  Providence,  1860. 

Barnard,  Henry.     Draft  of  a  School  Law.    Providence,  1845. 

Barnard,  Henry.  Journal  of  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of 
Instruction,  1846-1849. 

Barnard,  Henry.  Report  on  School  Architecture.  Providence, 
1845. 

Beaman,  C.  C.     History  of  Scituate.    Phenix,  1877. 

Bicknell,  T.  W.     History  of  Banington.     Providence,  1898. 

Bicknell  T.  W.  History  of  Rhode  Island  Normal  School. 
Providence,  1911. 

Bicknell,  T.  W.     Sowams.    Providence,  1908. 

Bliss,  George  N.    East  Providence.     Providence,  1896. 

Bronson,  Walter  C.  History  of  Brown  University.  Provi- 
dence, 1914. 

Carroll,  Charles.  School  Law  of  Rhode  Island.  Providence, 
1914. 


492  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Carroll,  William,  and  others.  Printers  and  Printing  in  Provi- 
dence. Providence,  1907. 

Chace,  H.  R.  Maps  of  Providence,  1650,  1765,  1770.  Provi- 
dence, 1914. 

Denison,  Frederic.  Westerly  and  Its  Witnesses.  Providence, 
1878. 

Documents  on  Land  Grant  Colleges.  Providence,  1892.  Rider 
collection. 

Dorr,  Henry  C.  Proprietors  of  Providence  and  Their  Con- 
troversy with  the  Freeholders.  Providence,  1897. 

Durfee,  Job.     Complete  Works.    Providence,  1849. 

Early  Records  of  Providence.    Reprint,  1892  et  seq, 

Early  Records  of  the  Town  of  Portsmouth.    Providence,  1901 . 

Elton,  Romed.     Callender's  Historical  Discourse.    Providence, 

1838. 
Ely,  W.  D.    Report  on  Settlement  of  Warwick.    No  Date. 

Field,  Edward.  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions at  the  End  of  the  Century:  A  History.  Boston, 
1902. 

Fuller,  O.  P.    History  of  Warwick.    Providence,  1875. 

Goodrich,  Massena.  Sketch  of  Pawtucket.  Pawtucket,  1876. 
Greene,  D.  H.  History  of  East  Greenwich.  Providence,  1877. 
Greene,  G.  W.  A  Short  History  of  Rhode  Island.  Providence, 

1877. 

Greene,  W.  C.    Sketch  of  Lincoln.    Providence,  1876. 
Griswold,  S.  S.    Hopkinton.    Hopkinton,  1877. 

Higginson,  T.  W.  History  of  Public  Education  in  Rhode 
Island.  See  Stockwell,  same  title. 

Hitchcock,  Enos.  Discourse  on  Education.  Pamphlet.  Rider 
collection. 

Keach,  H.  A.    Burrillville.    Providence,  1856. 

Kimball,  Gertrude  S.  Providence  in  Colonial  Times.  Boston, 
1912. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  493 

Livermore,  S.  T.    Block  Island.    Hartford,  1886. 
Long  Wharf,  Newport,  Dedication.    Newport,  1863. 

Messages  of  Rhode  Island  Governors. 

Mowry,  Arlan.    Speech  on  Setting  off  of  Woonsocket  from 

Smithfield — in  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  4, 

1870.     Rider  collection. 

Mowry,  A.  M.     The  Dorr  War.     Providence,  1901. 
Mowry,  William  A.     Recollections  of  a  New  England  Educator. 

Boston,  1908. 

Munro,  W.  H.     Bristol.     Providence,  1880. 
Munro,  W.  H.     Tales  of  an  Old  Seaport  Town.     Princeton, 

1917. 

Perry,  Elizabeth  A.     History  of  Glocester.    Providence,  1886. 
Peterson,  Edward.     History  of  Rhode    Island  and  Newport. 

New  York,  1853. 
Potter,   E.   R.    R.   I.   Educational   Magazine.    Successor   to 

Barnard's  Journal  of  the  Institute. 

Potter,  E.  R.     Rhode  Island  School  Laws  to  1867.    A  collection. 
Providence  City  Documents.    Annual. 

Ranger,  Walter  E.     Report  on  R.  I.  State  College. 

Ranger,  Walter  E.  Report  on  Industrial  Education.  R.  I. 
School  Reports. 

Reports  of  Providence  School  Committee,  particularly  centen- 
nial report,  1900.  Providence,  1900. 

Rhode  Island  Acts  and  Resolves.  Session  laws.  Schedules, 
another  name. 

Rhode  Island  State  College.     Annual  Reports,  1888-1917. 

Rhode  Island  Colonial  Records,  1636-1729.     Providence,  1856. 

R.  I.  Historical  Society.  Rhode  Island  Imprints,  1727-1800. 
Providence,  1915. 

Rhode  Island  Historical  Tracts. 

Rhode  Island  Public  Laws.    The  session  laws. 

Rhode  Island  Register.    Annual.     1820-1823. 

Rhode  Island  Reports.    Judicial  decisions.     1828-1917. 

Rhode  Island  Schedules.    The  Laws  and  other  State  documents. 


494  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Rhode  Island  School  Manual.     1873,  1882,  1896. 

Rhode  Island  Schoolmaster,  1856-1873.  Successor  to  Barnard's 
Journal  of  the  Institute  and  Potter's  Magazine. 

Rhode  Island  School  Reports.    Annual,  1850-1917. 

Rhode  Island  Town  and  School  Committee  Reports. 

Richman,  I.  D.  Rhode  Island:  A  Study  in  Separatism.  Bos- 
ton, 1900. 

Rider,  S.S.  Book  Notes.    Periodical.    Providence,  1883-1915. 

Sheffield,  W.  P.    Block  Island.    Providence,  1876. 

Small,  Walter  H.    Early  New  England  Schools.    Boston,  1914. 

Staples,  W.  R.    Annals  of  the  Town  of  Providence,  1636-1832. 

Providence,  1843. 

Steere,  Thomas.     History  of  Smithfield.    Providence,  1881. 
Stiness,  John  H.    A  Century  of  Lotteries  in  Rhode  Island. 
Stockwell,  Thomas  B.    History  of  Public  Education  in  Rhode 

Island,  1636-1876.    Providence,  1876. 
Stokes,  H.  K.     Finances  and  Administration  of  Providence. 

Johns  Hopkins  Studies.     Baltimore,  1903. 
Stone,  Edwin  M.    Life  of  John  Howland.    Providence,  1857. 
Stone,  Edwin  M.    History  of  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of 

Instruction. 

Tolman,  S.  H.    History  of  Higher  Education  in  Rhode  Island. 

Washington,  1894. 
Tustin,  J.  P.    History  of  Warren.    Providence,  1815. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Act  of  1800 80,  298,  377,  462,  479 

Act  of  1828 86,  91,  302,  333,  388,  464 

Act  of  1845 135,  136,  306,  434,  435,  465 

Adequate  support 144,  177 

Administration 216,  387-460 

Alleged  backwardness 13,  34,  36,  179 

Angell,  Oliver 101,  105,  150 

Apparatus 180,  212,  314,  316,  322,  453 

Appeals 172, 177,  185,  197,  403,  424,  433,  443,  447,  452,  460,  467 

Apportionment 93,  107,  138,  213,  298,  427,  433,  437,  442,  444 

Appropriations 146,  147,  305,  308,  309,  316,  321,  452,  454 

Attendance.  .67,  101,  104,  107,  108,  116,  134,  143,  148,  152,  153,  157,  177, 

180,  193,  195-202,  206,  209,  220,  239,  306,  392,  447,  458,  4|63 

Auction  duties 92,  118,  123,  272,  279,  302,  335 

Beginnings  of  a  School  System 37 

Blind,  Education  of 219,  327,  329,  438 

Board  of  Education ..  177,  189,  194,  202,  220,  221,  228,  263,  267,  386,  431, 
433,  436,  440,  441,  442,  445,  446,  450,  467,  481,  484 

Brown  University.  .20,  23,  31,  34,  53, 164, 178, 186, 188,  224,  225,  233,  251, 
267,  273,  276,  280,  281,  282,  326,  329,  330,  438,  440,  449,  470,  479 

Census..  160,    161,  193,  195,   199,  200,    205,  208,    240,  303,    315,  431, 

432,  443, 459 

Certification.  .64,  81,  119,  135,  136,  139,  140,  163,  177,  180,  191,  224,  238 
245,  247,  248,  266,  326,  330,  389,  399,  403,  405,  406,  425,  433,  434,  437, 

440,  443,  455,  463,  465,  480 

Chronology  of  improvement 269 

Colonial  schools 11 

Colored  schools 100,  157 

Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. .  135, 136,  142, 143, 170, 184, 190, 195,  224, 
227,  232,  256,  257,  259,  260,  263,  315,  329,  386,  403,  411,  412,  420,  425, 

433,  437,  445,  450,  465,  467,  480,  482 

Allyn • 152,  154,  180,  181,  212,  215,  433 

Barnard.  .26,  93,  114,  121,  129,  130,  132,  134,  135,  140,  163,  164,  166, 

169,  171,  178,  179,  180,  212,   265,  285,  300,  307,  389,  390,  393, 

402,  410,  420,  422,  427,  428,  430,  433,  434,  435,  436,  446,  465 

Bicknell 158,  159,  160,  175,  189,  192,  193,  194,  433,  436 


496  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

Commissioner  of  Public  Schools. — Continued.  PAGE 

Chapin 183,  184,  185,  192,  433 

Kingsbury .- 142,  181,  182,  433 

Potter  . .  14,  142,  152,  154,  164,  172,  174,  178,  179,  180,  184,  185,  189, 

197,  285,  433,  435,  436 

Ranger 153,  227,  249,  250,  265,  433 

Rousmaniere 183,  433 

Stockwell. .  14,  26,  192,  198,  200,  206,  209,  210,  212,  214,  215,  229,  231, 

264,  433 

Condemnation 185,  213,  217,  270,  424,  428,  452 

Consolidation 244,  245,  316,  417,  453 

Constitution. : . : . .  :83,  122,  123,  124,  223,  243,  332,  363,  394,  471 

Course  of  study.  .54,  60,  65,  66,  98,  100,  101,  135,  139,  193,  214,  215,  226, 

229,  437,  443,  447,  457,  470,  472,  475,  477 
Critical  years .  .... .  . . . . ....  .V.  . .  ... ... . . .... ......' 107,  114 

Deaf  and  dumb. . . .  . .'. . .  . . . . . . . . . .  .219,  220,  327,  330,  440 

Declaration  of  Independence 363 

Defectives 107,  214,  219,  326,  327,  329,  437,  440 

Deficient  schools 246,  267,  318,  438,  439,  444,  453 

Density  of  population 309 

Dental  inspection 258 

Deposit  fund. 106,  110,  115,  122,  123,  272,  285,  286,  353,  370 

Devotional  exercises 155,  198 

District  system.  .94,  132,  137,  146,  166,  177,  180,  181,  182,  183,  193,  196, 
209,  210,  248,  253,  317,  322,  323,  402,  420,  428,450 

Dog  taxes 147,  196,  213,  272,  291,  295,  322,  323,  432,  454 

Dorr,  Thomas  W.120,  121,  287,  288,  294,  353,  360,  362,  371,  390,  401,  426 

Economy .392,  393 

Educational  policy 468,  470,  479,  483 

Employment  of  children. .  .114,  120,  156,  160,  161,  193,  195,  197,  208,  209, 

239,  241,  258,  431,  444,  447,  458,  459 

Ethics  for  teachers 486 

Evening  schools 160,  193,  195,  261,  314,  316,  322,  329,  397 

Evolution  of  responsibility.  .33,  38,  54,  88,  272,  291,  293,  298,  321,  330, 

437,  439,  449,  453 

Exeter  School. . . . . .... ... . .  . . . .221,  327,  330,  437,  450 

Expenditures  for  schools .  .  . ...::. 306,  321 

Extension  and  improvement. 219,  319 

Factory  inspection 209,  239,  241,  459 

Factory  legislation 156,  160 

Finance 272,  452 

Financial  policy 146,  213,  272 

Free  public  schools 61,  77,  87,  277 

Fuel  tax '. 62,  65,  95,  102,  147 


INDEX.  497 

PAGE 

High  schools. 66, 97,  99,  117,  235,  245,  262, 316,  431,  439, 449, 453,  457,  476 

Higher  education 219,  224,  325,  327 

Holidays 260,  457 

Howland,  John 58,  77,  94 

Illiteracy 159,  193,  199,  203 

Indian  schools 70,  107,  138 

Individualism 14,  156,  434,  436 

Institutes 136,  139,  163,  326,  329,  433,  442,  479 

Irish  schoolmasters 39,  462 

Judicial  functions 137 

Length  of  school  year.  .35,  60,  104,  105,  135,  137,  139,  183,  192,  207,  209, 

238,  246,  251,  256,  267,  398,  457 

Liberty  of  conscience 11,  14,  36,  156,  197 

Libraries.  .19,  26,  34,  41,  42,  44,  45,  131,  132,  135,  136,  137,  164,  185,  195, 

196,  251,  258,  266,  280,  326,  329,  330,  335,  433, 437,  438, 441,  442,  479 

Lotteries.  .19,  28,  31-34,  42,  43,  44,  47,  50,  53,  68,  70,  72,  77,  85,  86,  91, 

118,  123,124,272,279,302 
Loyalty,  teacher's  pledge 489 

Mandatory  maintenance 145,  177,  436,  437,  455,  460 

Mann,  Horace 113,  129,  199,  422 

Mechanics  and  Manufacturers,  Association  of.  .58,  77,  112,  116,  153,  298, 

393 

Medical  inspection 257,  266,  318,  431,  438,  439,  450,  453 

Mileage 191,  326 

Monitorial  system 66,  99 

Montessori 262 

Morrill  act 185,  186,  188,  224 

Morality  and  virtue 61, 198,  284,  456 

Normal  School.  .135,  139,  163,  164,  177,  178,  185,  190,  195,  228,  251,  267, 
314,  326,  329,  433,  437,  440,  442,  443,  445,  447,  449,  450,  466,  469, 

470,  481 

Oaklawn  School 223,  400 

Organization  of  State  system 84 

Parochial  and  private  schools.  .39,  56,  154,  179,  193,  197,  206,  207,  275, 

276,  279,  315,  413,  437,  439,  459,  463,  464 

Patriotic  instruction  and  programmes 215,  259,  431,  443,  456 

Pensions .247,  249,  266,  327,  330,  438,  440,  457,  484 

Permanent  school  fund.  .83,  86,  87,  91,  118,  122,  123,  145,  279,  290,  302, 

307,  333 

Philosophy  of  school  finance 330 

Physical  training 251,  438,  457,  458 

Poll  tax 124,  147,  213,  272,  291,  292,  294,  322,  323,  432,  447,  454 


498  PUBLIC   EDUCATION   IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

PAOB 

Problems  of  administration 451 

Public  schools  to  free  schools 177 

Registers 154 

Registry  tax 124,  147,  272,  291,  292,  321,  322 

Religious  freedom 12,  36 

Religious  question 154,  179,  275,  276 

Responsibility  for  education.  .33,  38,  54,  88,  272,  291,  293,  298,  321,  330, 

432,  447,  448,  464,  479 
Rhode  Island  College.     See  Brown  University. 

Rhode  Island  College  of  Pharmacy 234,  327,  438,  440,  450 

Rhode  Island  Institute  for  the  Deaf 220,  327,  330,  450 

Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruction 26,  140,  164,  255,  329 

Rhode  Island  Schoolmaster 164 

Rhode  Island  School  of  Design.  .214,  232,  251,  327,  330,  440,  443,  437,  441, 

479 

Rhode  Island  State  College.  .188,  189,  214,  224,  251,  327,  330,  445,  449, 

450,  479 

Rights  of  pupils 458 

Roger  Williams 11,  19,  20 

Sanitation  and  sanitary  standards 133,  256,  266,  438,  439,  452,  458 

Scholarships 165,  186,  187,  189,  214,  233,  234,  235,  437,  440,  449 

School  age 209,  239,  267 

School  committee. .  18,  20,  21,  32,  56,  63,  120,  136,  244,  245,  264,  387,  388, 

390,  398,  402,  404,  405,  420 

Sight  and  hearing  tests 257,  444,  458 

Sockanosset  School 222,  263,  450 

Sprague  failure 375,  377,  380,  382 

State  department  of  education 432 

State  school  system 447 

State  Home  and  School 214,  221,  330,  450 

Summaries.  .34,  74,  105,  106,  128,  139,  175,  216,  269,  316,  319,  325,  328, 

330,  381,  402,  420,  451,  479,  483,  484 

Summer  school 231,  251,  267,  479 

Supervision.  .63,  99,  117,  135,  183,  193,  207,  210,  211,  248,  251,  317,  401, 
402,  407,  426,  428,  432,  433,  437,  438,  439,  443,  450,  453,  457,  468 

Supplementary  revenue 291 

Surveys. 72,  90,  102,  129,  268 

Tax  exemption 77,  179,  197,  208,  273 

Teacher's  contract 479 

Teacher's  duties 483 

Teachers'  money 118,  135,  148,  213,  313,  327,  423,  442 

Teachers'  pledge  of  loyalty 489 

Teachers'  salaries.  .35,  184,  195,  244,  247,  250,  266,  318,  327,  393,  394,  395, 

396,  453,  456,  461,  464 

Textile  industry 53,  113 

Textile  school. .  ..233 


INDEX.  499 

PAOB 

Textbooks.  .38,  62,  65,  100,  101,  135,  136,  137,  147,  149,  154,  177,  180,  215, 
395,  420,  421,  427,  430,  431,  433,  442,  452,  459 

Towns.  .75,  104,  105,  107,  109,  110,  111,  120,  235,  243,  305,  306,  309,  310, 

311 

Harrington 30,  33,  41,  209,  210,  235,  254,  257 

Bristol. .  13,  30,  31,  33,  41,  47,  76,  81,  157,  209,  235, 254,  257,  262,  281, 

471 

BurriUville 41,  44,  94,  235,  254,  262 

Central  Falls 29,  69,  235,  255,  257,  261,  262 

Charlestown 32,  42,  94,  254,  281 

Cranston. 16,  33,  43,  96,  235,  262,  423 

Coventry 27,  32,  43,  257,  262 

Cumberland. 13,  30,  32,  43,  235,  254,  262,  423 

East  Greenwich 16,  20,  28,  43,  95,  281 

East  Providence 13,  209,  235,  254,  257,  262 

Exeter 29,  44 

Foster .44,  68,  282 

Glocester 16,  32,  41,  44,  94,  95 

Hopkinton 33,  44,  95,  235,  257,  282 

Jamestown 16,  32,  44,  255,  257 

Johnston 16,  33,  45,  95,  210,  235,  254,  257,  262 

Little  Compton 13,  30,  33,  45,  119,  255 

Lincoln 29,  69,  235,  254,  262 

Middletown 24,  29,  33,  45,  76,  81,  95 

Newport. .  11, 14,  15,  20,  24,  33,  47,  76,  95, 138, 147, 152, 157, 158, 192, 
209,  235,  254,  257,  262,  263,  281,  282,  461,  462 

New  Shoreham 16,  32,  52,  235 

North  Kingstown 29,  32,  44,  52,  95,  235,  282 

North  Providence.  ...  16,  33,  52,  119,  209,  254,  257,  262,  282,  403,  465 

North  Smithfield 28,  69,  257 

Pawtucket 13,  53,  209,  235,  254,  257,  261,  262 

Portsmouth 11,  15,  24,  33,  53,  76,  119 

Providence.  .11,  15,  16,  20,  33,  43,  44,  51,  52,  53,  76,  81,  95,  96,  111, 

116,  119,  121,  138,  140,  147,  154,  158,  175,  192,  206,  209,  235,  254, 

257,  262,  263,  280,  300,  317,  389,  426,  429,  430,  461,  465,  479 

Richmond 33,  42,  68,  482 

Scituate 32,  44,  68,  73,  76,  282 

Smithfield 16,  28,  68,  69,  76,  81,  119,  387,  465 

South  Kingstown 32,  70,  235,  255,  281 

Tiverton 13,  30,  33,  70,  71 

Warren.  .13,  20,  30,  31,  33,  70,  71,  209,  235,  254,  257,  262,  274,  275, 

280,  281 

Warwick 11,  15,  27,  71,  96,  235,  257,  261,  282,  423 

West  Greenwich 16,  28,  32,  71,  72,  192 

West  Warwick 235,  257,  262 

^  Westerly 32,  42,  44,  71,  72,  96,  235,  255,  257,  261,  262 

*  Woonsocket 29,  69,  209,  210,  235,  254,  257,  262 


500  PUBLIC   EDUCATION    IN   RHODE   ISLAND. 

PAGE 

Training  teachers. .  162, 166,  234,  244,  251,  326,  438,  440,  449,  462,  466,  468, 

470,  475,  479 

Truancy 180 

Truant  officers. 202,  240,  431,  432,  459 

Tuition.  .51,  62,  118,  137,  138,  144,  147,  152,  154,  156,  157,  177,  185,  196, 

292,  296,  321,  413,  419,  454 

Unwritten  law 441 

Updike,  Wilkins 125,  150,  153,  163,  285,  393 

Vocational  Education. .  185, 186,  193,  223,  224,  232,  260,  266,  318,  397,  438, 

439,  440,  444,  445,  453,  454,  459 

Wayland,  Francis 63,  66,  97,  102,  112,  153,  388,  389,  392,  393 

Writing  schools 101 


ERRATA. 


Page  63.  "This  was  the  beginning  of  professional  supervision  in  Provi- 
dence; it  developed  in  1839  into  the  appointment  of  the  first  superintendent 
of  schools  in  America."  The  foregoing  assertion  was  made  after  careful 
consideration  of  the  data  which  follow: 

The  order  of  appointment  of  superintendents,  as  commonly  given,  places 
Buffalo  and  Louisville  before  Providence. 

October  7,  1816,  the  school  committee  of  Providence  voted:  "Whereas 
it  is  thought  most  advisable  by  the  committee  that  the  public  schools  in 
the  town  for  the  future  (so  far  as  comes  within  the  authority  of  the  school 
committee)  be  under  the  superintending  care  of  reverend  clergy  interim 
between  the  several  quarterly  visitations;  it  is  therefore  voted  that  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Edes  be  and  he  is  hereby  appointed  to  superintend  the  public 
school  in  the  first  district,  the  Rev.  etc." 

The  office  of  superintendent  was  created  April  9,  1838,  in  an  ordinance 
of  the  city  council,  which  provided:  "That  the  school  committee  be  and 
they  are  hereby  authorized  and  requested  to  appoint  annually  a  superin- 
tendent of  the  public  schools,  who  shall  perform  such  duties  in  relation  to 
the  public  schools  as  said  committee  may  from  time  to  time  prescribe." 
Nathan  Bishop  was  elected  superintendent  on  July  23,  1839,  and  entered 
upon  his  duties  August  1,  1839. 

Louisville  appointed  Samuel  Dickinson  as  "agent  of  the  board  of  viators" 
in  1838.  James  F.  Clarke,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Dickinson,  was  designated 
as  "superintendent  of  schools"  on  October  12,  1839. — O.  L.  Reid,  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools,  Louisville.  (Until  October  12,  1839,  neither  Mr. 
Dickinson  nor  Mr.  Clarke  held  a  more  definite  school  office  than  did  the 
clergymen  appointed  in  Providence  in  1816.  There  can  be  no  question 
that  Providence  holds  priority  over  Louisville.) 

The  New  York  Assembly,  at  the  session  of  1836-7,  authorized  Buffalo  to 
employ  a  school  officer  exercising  some  of  the  functions  of  supervision. 
R.  W.  Haskins,  the  first  incumbent  of  the  office,  resigned  because  he  was 
unable  to  accomplish  anything  with  the  limited  authority  conferred  upon 
him.  N.  B.  Sprague  declined  an  appointment  to  succeed  Mr.  Haskins,  for 
the  same  reason  that  Mr.  Haskins  resigned.  Oliver  G.  Steele  was  per- 
suaded to  accept  the  office. — Henry  P.  Emerson,  Superintendent,  quoting 
from  H.  Perry  Smith's  History  of  Buffalo,  1884.  (It  is  reasonable  to  hold 
that  the  school  officer  appointed  in  Buffalo  under  the  legislation  referred 
to  was  not  a  genuine  superintendent  of  schools.  Probably  he  had  no  more, 
or  little  more  authority,  than  the  clergymen  appointed  in  Providence  in 
1816.) 


Page  311,  line  5.    Read  "  1828  "  for  "  1829." 


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